The Island in the Sky: A Pokemon Ranger Tale
by Blue Feather Pegasus
Summary: Coal, a pokemon ranger, is sent on a mission with his friend Zack and a ranger Riley into the unknown. Along the way they meet a strange ally and soon find themselves with the fate of the world resting on their shoulders. With many unknown dangers and twisted paths they don't know where to turn in this exploit where friendships are tested and ones freedoms are questioned.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One

I was laying on the concrete floor of the illegal Pokémon testing labs of Team Rocket. My legs where bound together extremely tightly with some kind of wire that was digging into my flesh through my jeans. My wrists were similarly tied behind my back. A piece of cloth had been shoved into my mouth and a second one gagging me. My capture styler, which was normally strapped to my left wrist, was being dissected by a scientist in a corner of the room.

My friend, Zack, an honorary member of my ranger squad, and the leader of this mission, was tied to a chair in the middle of the room and was being interrogated by a bunch of goons. He was helpless as his belt with his pokeballs was sitting in a clear crystal box on a desk. The goons were beating him and shocking him with a Taser in an attempt to get him to tell important information about the inner workings of our mission. Zack, despite their torture, was holding his tongue and not saying anything other than the occasional curse directed at their leader.

We were completely helpless. I knew the only thing that kept the two of us strong was the fact that my partner, and absol named Shadow, had escaped and was currently heading back to HQ. He would no doubt bring reinforcements right to us. That is, of course, if he didn't get caught on the way.

I squirmed and tried to readjust the keystone strapped to my ankle inside my combat boot. I was laying on it and it hurt. The goons hadn't found it because of its location, it was obvious why I kept it inside my boot. It was, at the moment, give off heat meaning that Shadow had mega evolved so he could fly. As long as it was warm I knew he would be fine. He couldn't stay mega evolved when he was KO'd and no one was going to mess with a mega absol with an attitude.

Zack cried out in pain as they zapped him with the Taser again right in the ribs. His head hung limp as he panted trying to regain some semblance of composer. I saw his mouth working and then his head jerked up and he spat in the face of the leader. After the Rocket wiped the saliva out of his eye, he punched Zack right in the noise. His head jerked hard to the side and I could see blood pouring out of his noise, it had been broken.

"Tell us how you got the location of this laboratory!" The leader yelled with a sick grin on his face.

"Never," Zack said with a sneer. The leader took a deep breath.

"Fine, bring that one over here," he gestured to me. "You may not respond to torture yourself, but perhaps if we hurt your subordinate," he said rubbing his temples.

I couldn't see Zack's reaction to this because one of the goons grabbed me by my hair, which was a little overgrown and always a total bed head, and dragged me to Zack's feet.

"Will you tell us if I do this?" The leader said and pressed the Taser to my side. I cried out at the jolt of electricity that suddenly found itself inside my body. The problem however, was that I don't react to pain in nearly the same way that most people do. Because of something that happened in my past, most of my pain receptors are destroyed and it takes a lot to really cause me discomfort. Zack knew this.

Zack said nothing in response to the leader's question and instead gave me a look that said, "I'm sorry, but I can't tell them no matter what they do to you." I nodded back at him in understanding. What was taking Shadow so long?

The leader lifted his foot and Zack looked away. I knew how much it pained him to see someone under his command getting hurt in the way I was about to. The boot came down on my rib cage. Despite my damaged receptors, this hurt, a lot. I heard a sickening crack as several ribs snapped. I cried out, though it was muffled by the gag.

The Rocket looked at Zack expectantly. Zack gave him a look of complete and utter hate and disgust. All this I saw through blurred vision as my eyes had teared up horribly. This pain however, was nothing compared to what I had withstood before.

There was a loud crash as a section of the celing fell to the floor. Standing on top of the rubble was Shadow, in all his mega evolved glory with wings and an extra horn, surrounded by two dozen rangers and their partner Pokémon.

"Shadow, that box, behind you!" Zack called out to my Pokémon. Shadow whirled around and spotted the box containing Zack's pokeballs. With a slash of his horn the box was cleaved in two and Zack's six Pokémon sprang from their pokeballs and appeared at their trainer's side. They all stood fierce and menacing, a black charizard, a haxorus, a braviary, a sylveon, a liepard, and a zebstrika.

Shadow stood there as well and glared at everyone, power radiating from him like water from a broken pipe.

Immediately all the Rockets in the room dropped their pokeballs and placed their hands in the air. The rangers got to work arresting everyone and sending people out into the hallways to find the other Rockets and arrest them. No one gave us a second thought.

Zack's Pokémon cut him free and Shadow rushed to me and did the same.

"Are you okay Coal?" Zack asked.

"No," I groaned as he pulled me to my feet. I want to take a second to explain that Coal is not my real name. I was given it long ago because my hair and eyes are coal black, not shiny like obsidian, but dull like coal. And now, it is the name everyone calls me by; only Zack knows it isn't my real name.

I leaned heavily on Zack, every breath hurt and my mind was clouded; the whole of reality seemed fuzzy.

"We need to get you to the hospital," Zack said, he sounded extremely worried. "Here, can you climb on Maximus?" Together, we managed to get me onto the back of Maximus, Zack's shiny charizard. Shadow, no longer mega evolved, jumped in front of me on Maximus' back and I clipped his safety harness to Maximus' to ensure he didn't fall off.

Zack recalled all his Pokémon except Takage, his braviary. He climbed onto Takage's back and led Maximus out through the hole in the celing. We found ourselves on the ground floor of the building where the doors were blown open. Straight through these we flew and out into the clear night sky.

I have one thing to say about flying, it's awesome. The complete freedom that comes with flight is something one never tires of. It is like first time every time. However, I didn't enjoy this flight as much, to no one's surprise. Zack lead the way to the nearest hospital in Snowbelle City which the Rocket base had been hidden south-east of.

I don't really remember how long we were in the air, nor do I really remember the landing. I do remember asking Zack to watch Shadow for me as I was loaded onto a stretcher outside the hospital. He said he would as Maximus and Takage disappeared inside their pokeballs. Once I was sure Shadow was going to be taken care of I truly blacked out.

The first thing I saw when I came to was the white celing of my hospital room. There was the hum of machinery and a beep, beep, beep of my heart monitor. I had a needle stuck in my arm that was attached to a bag of fluids. A little white clip was on my right index finger.

I noticed a pressure on my legs and when I pushed the incline button on my bed and was able to look I found it was Shadow lying peacefully sound asleep. Someone had removed his harness for him but his mega stone was still safely around his neck. I freaked out for a moment when I realized I couldn't feel my key stone on my leg but I found that someone had set it on my bedside table. I grabbed it and strapped it onto my right wrist and thus felt much safer. I was left handed and needed my left wrist for my capture styler.

I smiled at Shadow, once again he had saved my life. I thought back to the first time he had done so.

It was a mere two years ago, back when I first became a Ranger at age 16; I am one of the youngest people to become a ranger by the way, not that I consider it a really big feat, but most people do so I thought I would mention it. Anyway, two years ago I had been on my first mission by myself. There had been reports of a lone zebstrika in rapidash territory who was causing all kinds of trouble with the herds. My job was to find the zebstrika, capture it, and relocate it outside of rapidash turf.

All was going well, I brought along a pickup truck with a cage over the bed lined with fresh straw that I could use to move the Pokémon once I found it. I set up camp on the top of a rocky outcrop in the middle of the largest meadow in the area when suddenly a late winter storm blew in.

It was soon a full blow blizzard and I rushed to get my stuff back to the truck where I could camp out and stay warm. The snow came down in sheets and the wind made it impossible to see three feet in front of you. I didn't see the canyon that I was walking right towards. I had come a different way to get to the outcropping so I hadn't seen the canyon and thus didn't know it existed.

Needless to say I fell straight to the bottom. I did not, however, sustain any injuries from the fall because I landed in a staraptor's nest. The mother was furious because my fall had broken one of her three eggs. My pants where covered in Pokémon egg and I stood up as fast as I could and tried to apologize. She didn't hear me or was just too furious to listen.

I tried to calm her by capturing her with my styler that relates to a Pokémon my feelings of friendship and trust, but unlike me, it had been damaged in the fall and refused to work.

The staraptor slashed me across the chest with Aerial Ace. I fell backwards out of the nest and tried to make a run for it but even down here the snow made it impossible to see any more than a few feet in any direction. I ran smack into a rock and fell to the ground dazed. The staraptor lashed out with Wing Attack and sent me slamming into the canyon wall.

It was at this moment that an absol appeared out of the storm and blasted the staraptor with thunderbolt. Where a wild absol learned thunderbolt I still don't know. The staraptor flew off back to its nest to watch out for the remaining two eggs.

I stood up holding the gash on my chest. The absol looked at me with genuine concern. He started to walk away and then looked back at me like he wanted me to follow. I placed a hand on his shoulder so I wouldn't lose him in the white out that the canyon was becoming.

He led me around the canyon without crashing into anything. Soon I found that we had entered a skinny tunnel in the canyon wall that lead to a very cozy room where the snow and wind didn't reach. The floor was lined with dry grass but was still very cold.

I sat down in a corner and the absol lay down opposite me and placed his head on his paws. I pull off my backpack and located a mess of gauze and bandages. I pulled off my shirt to reveal my heavily scared chest and arms. The absol looked genuinely interested in these and also a little shocked. I managed with little difficulty to clean and bandage the wound. When I was done I sighed heavily and leaned back against the cold wall. I had lost my jacket in the fall and the cold was starting to get to me.

I shivered and hugged myself. Pulling out a bag of dried berries I+ tried to eat them in an attempt to get my body to generate heat by digesting them. I was so involved in the berries that I didn't realize the absol had come very near and was eyeing the food longingly. It was then that I realized he was very young and looked a little too skinny for an absol. I placed a dried berry slice on the palm of my hand and held it out for the absol to see.

"Here, you can eat it," I told him. His sniffed it and gingerly took it out of my hand. Once he had finished chewing it he opened his mouth and said 'Sol' in a rather happy tone. I gave him more of my berries and together we finished off the bag.

Even with the food in my belly I was still very cold and my teeth had begun to chatter. The absol stood up and picked up my bag that was on my lap and set it to the side. Then he put his paws on my shoulder and pushed me over.

"What are you doing?" I asked but didn't resist. Once I was laying on my side he grabbed a tattered looking blanket that I hadn't notice before and pulled it over me.

"Thank you," I said but he wasn't done. He proceeded to crawl under the blanket with me.

"You are so warm," I told him and he sighed happily.

When the storm had passed, he led me out of the canyon and followed me to my truck. I needed to head back to HQ before I could finish my mission because my capture styler needed to be repaired. When I opened the driver side door to get into the truck however, the absol leapt right in and sat down in the passenger's seat.

I smiled at him and asked, "So you want to come with me?" He nodded.

"In that case, absol, would you like to be my partner Pokémon?" He looked me straight in the eye and nodded decisively.

"I would love to have you as my partner absol, I really need someone to be my shadow. Why don't I call you that? Shadow?" He thought for a moment then nodded. And just like that I had found my partner Pokémon, the one who would always be with me of every living moment.

I was jolted out of the memory by the sound of the door opening. It was Zack. He had a bandage across his noise and a finger splint of both his right index and ring finger. He was wearing his usual white cotton tank top and light blue jeans. In his arms was a bag from a local clothing store.

"How you feeling?" he asked with a smile on his face. Shadow looked over at him and yawned wide. Then he proceeded to sniff the bandages on my chest.

"I'm fine; just woke up actually," I told him.

"Cool, the doctor says you can go home after you eat something, it's almost noon. So hurry up, I want to get out of here already." Zack is the super enthusiastic type. Unlike me, he practically flaunted the scars that also covered his chest and arms. You would think they would keep people away, but everyone loved Zack. He could make anyone smile just with the way he behaved and faced all of life's challenges. His spirit hadn't been broken like mine had.

I always wore black clothing and long sleeves to hide my scars and myself from the world. I was known as a loner. I tended to hang out in the shadows or corners of a room even during mission meetings. Zack was my only human friend. Besides him, I didn't interact with humans, and even interacting with him was tiring.

"I'd love to eat, just point the way to the food," I said and tried to smile, though I didn't really feel like it. Zack grinned and stepped out into the hallway to catch the attention of a nurse. She came in and checked me out. She took my temperature and my pulse and fingered at my ribs, which didn't really hurt.

"Okay, you are looking just fine, once you eat something we will be able to discharge you, but you will have to take it easy for a month while the bones heal. We will give you a medicine that will speed up the healing process." With that she disappeared again.

"Here," Zack said handing me the bag. Inside I found a pair of black jeans, a long sleeve black t-shirt, a pair of socks and some underwear.

"I bought that in a store in town," Zack explained. "The doctor cut your clothes off of you so they are no good. Your combat boots are here under the bed. I had to re-lace them though, boy that was a pain." Zack sat down in a chair and put his hands behind his head in a gesture of complete comfort. He tossed a pokeball in the air and his sylveon Tulip appeared on his lap. He aimlessly scratched her behind the ear.

We sat for a few moments in silence, but for us it wasn't awkward. We had known each other for so long that Zack knew I didn't always have something to say but that didn't mean I wanted him to leave. After a while a nurse came in with a tray of food. I inhaled everything under her watchful eye.

"Okay, you are free to go," she said and looked over at Zack. "I just need you to sign this and he is all yours." Zack signed the paper and she left. With his help I stood up and managed with as little pain as possible to get dressed. Shadow watched patiently from the bed.

"There you go, all set," Zack said. "I have your pain meds so I guess that means we can leave. You are coming home with me."

"Wait! What?" I asked surprised. Normally I just lived at the common dorms at the main HQ in Lumiose City and I figured that was where I was going to wait for my bones to heal.

"Yep," Zack said. "The head honcho didn't want you on your own while you heal, and plus I am off for the next month while they do some detective work to figure out if it is my fault that the mission got botched or if, like I claimed, Team Rocket already knew we were coming and we have a rat in the system."

"Okay, you don't seem worried that you could get blamed for it," I said.

"That's because I'm not worried," he shrugged. "I didn't cause the mission to fail so I shouldn't take the blame." And with that he walked out the door with Tulip on his shoulder. I looked at Shadow who rolled his eyes. I nodded in agreement with him and we followed Zack out of the hospital.

Zack got us lost several times on our way out but by now I was used to this. He has zero sense of direction. We finally made it outside where Zack let out both Maximus and Takage.

"Oh, here," Zack said pulling Shadow's harness out of his backpack and helping my Pokémon put it on. Once that was done I climbed onto Maximus with Shadow and Zack got on Takage, now with Tulip in her pokeball.

"We are headed to Santalune City first where we will spend the night at the Pokémon Center since there isn't a ranger base set up there," Zack explained. "Then tomorrow it will be straight to Lumiose and my home! Let's go Takage!" Zack yelled to the sky and we launched into the air on our way to Santalune.

 _ **New chapters at least every week. Please feel free the review it and tell me how I am doing.**_


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Point of View Change: Now from the Point of View of Shadow the Absol

I don't really like flying on Maximus. I feel helpless, without any control. I would much rather fly myself in my mega evolved state, but mega evolving takes a lot out of me so I had no choice but to let Maximus to carry me.

Maximus's coloring always bothers me. I think the humans call it shiny. It's a pretty rare condition but the humans seem to value it, for whatever strange reason.

"Hey, Maximus, we almost there!?" I yelled to be heard above the wind.

"Not much father now. The town should be coming into view on the horizon soon," he answered hardly needing to raise his voice above its normal roar. Just as he said, Santalune soon showed up on the horizon. Takage swooped down really close to Maximus so Zack could talk to Coal.

"See that?" Zack said pointing. "We should be there pretty soon." Coal nodded and Takage swooped away again.

"How you doing Shadow?" Coal asked with a gentle touch on my shoulder.

"I'm fine, just ready to get off," I answered. Although Coal didn't understand the words, he got the general gist of what I said and removed his hand from my side. After several more minutes, Santalune was directly under us. The sun was very near the horizon and I was ready for solid ground under my feet.

Maximus and Takage located a battle field where no one was competing and we landed there with a soft jolt. As soon as Coal unclipped my harness from Maximus' I leapt to the ground and stretched. I walked around for bit while Coal got off of the charizard and he disappeared back into his pokeball. I was glad I never had to go into one of those things. I had never truly been caught and that suited me.

"I think the Pokémon Center is this way," Zack said pointing in the wrong direction. I sighed and started walking in the correct direction. Knowing Coal he would have followed Zack around town all night looking for it even though he knew its location as well as I.

"Hey, Shadow? Where you going?" Zack ask and I just looked back at him and said, "Follow me you idiot."

"I think he wants us to follow, besides, the Pokémon Center isn't that way Zack," Zack was still pointing and he quickly lowered his hand.

"Right, I knew that," Zack said. "Follow that absol!" he said with as much gusto as he could muster. I rolled my eyes and led the way to the Pokémon Center. The place was packed at this time of day. Lots of people were having their Pokémon checked up on and chatting before bed.

Zack walked up to the counter while Coal and I hung out in the corner as far from the trainers as we could get. Neither one of us is very social, and I knew Coal was actually more scared of humans than I was.

"Here," Zack said handing Coal a key. "Your room is 15. I'm gona go chat with these trainers for a bit and see if they have heard anything interesting about Team Rockets movements. I'll come get you in a bit and we will go get dinner." Zack walked over to the couches that tended to be the main social point of any Pokémon Center. He tossed up a pokeball and his sylveon came out. Several girls instantly crowded Tulip wanting to pet her and asking her name. I didn't see what else happened because Coal led the way into our room and the door of the hallway closed behind us.

Pokémon Centers act as a sort of hotel for trainers as well as a place to meet new friends and learn the latest in Pokémon news. The rooms are comfortable enough, just a bed and a desk that was stocked with paper and pencils. Down the hall from the rooms one can find the bathrooms equipped with showers and a kitchen that trainers can use to cook or bake.

Coal collapsed on the bed and instantly fell asleep. Poor guy, he was having a rough time. I, however, was too hungry to wait for dinner. I had eaten at the hospital but that had just been generic Pokémon chow and that stuff isn't very appetizing. I opened the door and wandered out into the hallway. My nose instantly picked up the smell of food coming from the kitchen, and not just any food, this was the smell of pokepuffs, the most delicious food made just for Pokémon. I nudged open the door of the kitchen that had been left cracked.

Sitting on the counter where dozens of pokepuffs. A girl about 14 was decorating another batch with a very determined look on her face. A pachirisu sat next to the treats with a pink pokepuff in her hands that had a bite taken out of it. Suddenly, the girl threw down her frosting bag and banged her head on the counter.

"I just can't get it right. All I want is to make a pokepuff unlike anything see or tasted before and they just don't come out right at all," the girl complained.

"They taste great to me!" the pachirisu said cheerfully.

"Hey, what's going on?" I asked walking the rest of the way into the room.

"Oh look Sparks, an absol," the girl said when she saw me. She crouched down so she was at eye level with me. "Where is your trainer Absol?" she asked me. I ignored her question and instead put my front paws on the counter and looked at all the pokepuffs.

"What are you trying to do?" I asked as the girl stood up.

"Oh, you want some pokepuffs?" the girl asked cheerfully.

"Yeah," I said and nodded.

"Here," the girl set a plate with a bunch of pokepuffs on the floor for me. I got off the counter and started munching on them.

"These are really good, hey Pachirisu, what is your trainer trying to do?"

"She is trying out new pokepuff recipes. She is going to enter a pokepuff challenge!" the pachirisu said enthusiastically.

"Hmm, pokepuff challenge huh?" I mused.

"What are you two talking about?" The girl asked as she went back to decorating her pokepuffs.

"Nothing Laura," the pachirisu said even though her trainer couldn't understand her.

Suddenly, a boy walked into the kitchen; he had a starly on his head and he looked like he was about to drop from exhaustion.

"Are you still working on your pokepuffs Laura?" he asked with a yawn. A chespin came in behind the boy.

"Yeah, John, I need to have a best pokepuffs for the competition next month," Laura said. "How did your gym battle go?"

"It went alright, I lost but only by a little bit. I'm gona train for another week then challenge it again, as long as you are up for staying here that long," John said. Both his Pokémon leapt onto the counter and started eating pokepuffs. They looked really well rested which means they were just healed but Nurse Joy.

"Sure, I don't mind staying here," Laura said. "There are plenty of stores that sell the ingredients I need and this kitchen is well kept so I'm all set," she said without even looking up from her work.

John sat down at a table and pulled out a pokedex. He scrolled through it aimlessly. I had finished my pokepuffs but was hoping for more. I walked over to John and put my paws up on the table to see what entry he was looking at. I turned out to be for vivillion.

"Oh, hello Absol, where is your trainer," John asked. "Wait a minute, is that a mega stone! No way I haven't seen one this close before!"

"What has you so exited?" Laura asked coming over.

"This absol has a mega stone, which means his trainer must have a key stone. Man I want to see him mega evolve!" John said all in one breathe.

"Oh, cool. But where is your trainer Absol?" Laura asked. At that moment, Zack with a sleepy Coal in tow came through the door.

"Oh, there you are Shadow, what are you doing here?" Zack asked.

"He likes to wander off," Coal said through a yawn.

"He was trying my pokepuffs," Laura explained. John spotted Coal's keystone and jumped up.

"So you're his trainer!? I know it is a lot to ask but could you show me his mega evolution!? I have never seen a mega absol before!" John practically shouted. His volume did the trick to wake Coal up.

"His mega form, sure. Shadow, mega evolve!" Coal said raising up his wrist with his keystone. I complied and transformed.

"Wow, he is so cool," John said enviously. "But you don't really look like a trainer," he said eyeing the badge on Coal's chest.

"Actually I am a Pokémon Ranger. That absol is my partner Pokémon," Coal said scratching the back of his head nervously.

"That's cool I guess," John said.

"Well, let's go eat, I'm starving," Zack said pushing Coal out of the room. I transformed back and followed.

"Shadow thanks you for the pokepuffs!" Coal remembered to say as he was herded out of the room. I sighed and followed. The last thing I heard as the door close behind me was John saying, "Those guys are weird."

Dinner was good, though I wasn't very hungry anymore. All of Zack's Pokémon came out to eat with us. His liepard Lex has this huge crush on me that she wasn't afraid to show.

"So, Shadow, why don't you and I get away from here and hang out just the two of us?" she asked in the sexiest voice she could muster.

"You know Zack would never let you wander off without him and I have to keep an eye on Coal." Keeping an eye on Coal was always how I responded to her advances because the kid tended to get himself into trouble.

Lex pouted but didn't try again, instead she just went back to her food. Zack's zebstrika Leon finished his food and lay down next to me on the patio where the stones were still warm from absorbing the sun all day. For a zebstrika, Leon is a pretty chill guy and I consider him a trustworthy ally.

"We sure had a tough time on that last mission huh?" Leon said.

"Don't remind me. Coal is going to go crazy for the next month with no work. You know how he is." Leon laughed.

"Yeah, he is a total workaholic," Leon said.

"You can say that again."

Point of View Change: Now from the Point of View of Coal

My dreams that night started as a jumble of scenes from old missions I've been on. There was the time I saved a group of goldeen who got stranded in a quickly evaporating puddle of a pond. And the time that I fell out of the tree trying to save an aipom who was caught in a snare set up by Team Rocket.

Then, my dreams turned dark. Old memories were brought to the surface. I must have started tossing and turning because I woke up when I fell out of bed.

"Ouch," I said rubbing my back. I looked to find Shadow huddled in a corner. "I'm okay, don't worry." He came up to me and started licking my face.

"It's okay, let's just go back to sleep." We climbed back into bed and Shadow was soon asleep in my arms. It took me much longer to fall back asleep.

"Coal! Get up, it's time to go!" Zack shouted banging on my door and waking me up.

"Give me a minute." I mumbled.

"Shadow, open the door will ya?" Zack said and Shadow complied.

"Traitor," I mumbled. Zack ripped the blanket off of me and I curled up into a tighter ball.

"What time is it?" I asked.

"5:30, let's go!" he answered shaking the bed. Normally he would shake me but was trying to be gentle considering my broken ribs.

"It's too early, go back to sleep," I mumbled.

"No way. I don't care if you want to sleep in we are leaving, so get dressed!" he shook the bed harder.

"Okay, okay, fine, I'm getting up see." I sat up and he grabbed my hands and pulled me too my feet. I had slept with my clothes on so all I need to do was put on my boots.

"Great," Zack said once my boots were on. "Let's go!" he said dragging out of the room.

"What about breakfast?" I groaned.

"We can have brunch when we get to my house, I am all out of funds."

"Great, an early start with no food."

A hoothoot sat on the counter of the Pokémon Center. It was too early for even Nurse Joy so she had left hoothoot out all night to wake her if there was an emergency.

"Here you go Hoothoot," Zack said handing the Pokémon our room keys. The hoothoot took the keys and put them away.

"Thanks Hoothoot," Zack said then proceeded to drag me out of the building. It was still dark outside. Maximus and Takage came out and we climbed aboard. Soon we would be Lumiose City were I would have to wait around for a whole month. I was not looking forward to the lack of work at all.

 ** _New chapters at least every week. Feel free to review it and tell me how I am doing._**


	3. Chapter 3

_**sorry if it is a little short and broken up, the next chapter should be better now that all the set up is out of the way**_

Chapter Three

Point of View: Coal

We landed in an empty battle field near Zack's house on the north side of Lumiose. The sun had been up for an hour and a half now but the town was still waking up. Only a few cars were on the streets and almost no was outside. Only about half the stores and cafes had open signs in their windows.

The air was brisk and I was glad for the jacket that Zack had loaned me the other day, even though it was bright blue, not really my color. Shadow walked pressed up against my leg. He didn't like big cities, neither did I for that matter. Buildings looming over you and thousands of people and Pokémon crammed into a tinny space; it's nerve racking.

A lone gogoat wandered the streets looking for anyone who needed a ride. Without warning, Tulip, Zack's sylveon, let herself out of her pokeball and appeared on the sidewalk next to Shadow. With one graceful jump, she sprang onto Shadow's back and sat down in-between his shoulder blades. She often rode on him like this; he didn't seem to mind.

We left the main streets behind and veered into the outskirts of the city. Pretty soon we found ourselves in a nice community of two story houses with large front and back yards. Zack led us to a light blue house with a brown roof. The door was glossy white.

I'd been here before so I knew what to expect.

"Is Terran at home?" I asked, Terran being Zack's roommate.

"Yeah, he should be," Zack said as he unlocked the door.

My question was answered right away as several eeveevolutions ran to the door to great us. There was an umbreon, an espeon, a vaporeon, a jolteon, a flareon, and a shiny sylveon. I also noticed a glaceon in a basket under the TV set with three baby eevees. The sliding glass door to the back yard was open and I could see a leafeon lounging on the lower bow of a tree outside. There was also a swimming pool out there.

"Terran! I'm home! Where are you!?" Zack called out as he kicked of his shoes. There was a loud crash in the kitchen and a slew of cursing. Terran rounded the corner to the entry way with a pink apron on. His blond hair was cut short and his blue eyes glimmered with a mischievous glint that made you not want to trust him with anything sharp or explosive.

The three of us had known each other for a long time. Terran also bore the scars of our past across his chest and arms. He is just as well built as Zack and I and once in a while worked as an undercover agent for the rangers, but he has an obsession with the eeveevolutions.

"How'd your mission go?" Terran asked as he stirred the bowl of batter in his arms.

"Don't ask," Zack said jumping over the back of the couch and laying down on it. Tulip jumped after him and curled up on his chest.

"That bad huh?" Terran asked.

"Let's put it this way," Zack started, "Coal here has three broken ribs."

"That's bad." Terran went back into the kitchen and I sat down on a comfy chair. Zack picked up his pokeballs and one by one aimed them out the back door and let everyone out. Maximus, Leon, and Tyler, the haxorus, started play wrestling in the yard. Lex and Takage came inside. Lex curled up in a Pokémon bed against the wall and Takage flew up to his perch hanging from the celing. There are Pokémon beds and climbing structures all around the house. Pokémon toys litter the floor and meal times are always chaotic. It is actually a really nice home, even though it gets a little rambunctious with so many Pokémon.

Zack turned the TV on and I got up to go to the kitchen. I was hungry; Shadow followed. Terran had made a mess of the kitchen as usual. Spoons and bowls filled the sink and bits of batter and food covered the counters. However, that was all made up for by the delicious looking food that was prepared. Fried potatoes and other vegetables sat in a pan off to the side. There was also a growing pile of pancakes.

I also noticed several large bowls that contained a strange chunky purple mixture that smelled of berries. I assumed that it was Pokémon food.

"Get out of here, it's not ready yet," Terran said as he shooed us back into the dining room. In the dining room there was a small table on the side of the room that opened into the living room, but on the wall was a long row of Pokémon food dishes. There were also a few bowls outside on the patio for the Pokémon who were too big to come inside.

I walked upstairs to the "spare" bed room. Really I was the only one who used it. I found that someone from HQ had brought my bag of clothes over and set it at the foot of the bed. I sighed and started unpacking. I was going to be here a while so I might as well make myself at home.

Point of View Change: Now from the Point of View of Shadow

I lay down on the bed while Coal unpacked. This place was nice, but I wasn't looking forward to napping all day while we were stuck here. Maybe I would take to walking about the city by myself. I knew Coal wasn't supposed to be moving around all that much till his ribs heal.

I got bored and jumped off the bed. I headed downstairs to see if I could find someone to roughhouse with, not that I would have a problem with this, there are plenty of Pokémon willing to do that kind of thing.

I have one thing to say about Terran's nicknaming ability, it is terrible. For example, his umbreon is named Dark, and his leafeon is named Leafy. Dark is actually a rather rambunctious umbreon and it was him that I sought out. I found him trying to sneak up on Rose, the espeon. He pounced and she just rolled out of the way fully aware that he was behind her.

I took this moment to jump at Dark. He jumped back and me and thus our game began. We played a game like tag for a bit but then ended up wrestling. Our game ended with the sound of Terran yelling, "Breakfast!" All the eeveevolutions have color coded bowls. The bowl I ate out of when I was here is white. That mashed up purple stuff from before was in fact our food and I have to say it was absolutely delicious.

Terran actually ran a large, very popular restaurant in Lumiose. He wasn't always there now but he had started it as the head chef. He personally trained all the of the chefs that work there now and tends to spend his time in children's hospitals with his Pokémon cheering up the kids and making everywhere they go much happier places.

Terran shooed all the Pokémon, including me, outside once we were done eating. I guess he did this so he could clean up without everyone getting in his way. The glaceon Ice and her three babies lay down under the tree near the door where their father Leafy stood guard to make sure the wresting Pokémon didn't come too close.

I lay down next to the pool and watched the vaporeon, Splash, as he swam around in the deep end. The summer day was warming up and I was starting to get a little hot. Splash poked his head above the surface and squirted water at me.

"What'd you do that for?" I asked.

"I want someone to swim with, and if you are already wet, then maybe you will be more likely to come in," he explained. I didn't really understand his logic but I decided that a swim sounded nice.

I walked over to the steps and made my way into the water. I swam around for a while and Dark came over to see what I was up to. He leapt onto my back and sat there as I paddled around.

"I'm not a rapidash you know," I told Dark.

"I know, but I like water, but not getting wet," he answered.

"That doesn't make any sense," Splash said for me.

I swam for a little while longer then climbed out when Terran opened the sliding glass door to let us inside. I shook myself off and walked through the door where I was attack by Terran with a towel. I stood obediently while he dried me off then went to see what Coal was doing.

I found Coal looking very bored as Zack showed him something on a laptop in the dining room. I put my paws on the table to get a closer look at what it was. Turned out it was a poke-vision video staring a girl and her pachirisu. I recognized the girl as Laura from the Pokémon Center yesterday. So she was a poke-vision star.

I went over to the TV that had been left on the news. I sat and watched it for a bit but nothing interesting was happening so I wandered upstairs. I found Terran's room wide open. It was extremely messy. Clothes and cookbooks were strewn all across the floor. The cork board on the wall was pinned with dozens of printed and hand written recipes. The white board had a long list of ingredients written on it.

A large bed dominated a corner of the room. After stacking a few books on the desk and using my horn to move the clothing into a pile I sighed. I wished there was more I could do to fix this mess but without hands I was stuck having to live in the room across the hall from this chaos.

I walked to the end of the hall and the last bedroom in the house. It was Zack's room and I was glad to see it was clean, but it happened to be very bare. There was a bed and a desk and a dresser. That's it. A few books sat on the shelf above the desk and a small stack of paper work was on the desk in front of the computer screen. But other than that, there was nothing on the walls and no decorations of any kind.

Zack also happened to a workaholic as can be seen by the lack of décor. I decided to do a little snooping. I pulled open the bottom draw of his dresser. What I found shocked me. Inside was a key stone attacked to a necklace chain and an elaborate collar with a Charizardite Y embedded in it.

"Why don't you use these," I wondered out loud. I decided that the best way to get answers would be to bring these to Coal. I hooked the chain on my horn and picked up the collar in my mouth. As calmly as I could I walked down the stairs. All three guys were watching something on the TV. Luckily, Coal was the closest to me and Zack the farthest. I rushed to Coal and dumped the collar on his lap.

"What's this Shadow?" Coal asked and Zack looked over. Zack turned a ghostly white.

"Where'd you get that Shadow!?" he said jumping up and trying to snatch it from Coal but Coal was too fast to stood up hiding it behind his back.

"What are you doing hiding a Charizardite and a key stone Zack?" Coal asked. Zack stood angrily and snatched the key stone from my horn.

"That is none of your business," he said trying to get the mega stone back from Coal.

"Calm down you two," Terran said trying to defuse the situation.

"Tell him to give me back my mega stone," Zack said through clenched teeth. Despite Terran being shorter than the other two, he was older by a couple of years.

"Coal, would you just give him his stone back," Terran pleaded. "The two of you are acting like little kids. Give him his stone back and Zack, tell us why are were hiding it; there shouldn't be secrets like this between the three of us."

This little speech calmed them down and Coal gave the stone back.

"Fine, I'll tell you," Zack said as he sat down with a sigh. "You guys already know that I rescued Maximus, and Terran's sylveon from a shiny Pokémon auction. What I didn't tell you is that the people who were selling Maximus were trying to force him to evolve before he was ready; he was still only a charmander. They wanted him to evolve because then he could use the mega stone they had and be sold for more money. Maximus grew to hate that mega stone thinking of it as the reason he was trapped in that warehouse. So when I rescued him and ended up with the mega stone I hid it away and swore never to use it until Maximus was truly ready for it."

"Wow, sorry," was all Coal could say.

"It's fine, you didn't know," Zack said standing up. "This is actually a good chance to see if he is ready." With those words Zack walked outside and everyone followed him.

Maximus came over to Zack and stood before him.

"Maximus, with your permission I would like to put this mega stone on you," Zack said.

Maximus flinched away from the stone at first but after a looking at it for a while he consented to have the stone put on him. Zack put on the necklace with the key stone and held it in his hand.

"You ready?" Zack asked. Maximus nodded. "Aright, Maximus! Mega Evolve!"

Even though I had done it myself before, seeing a Pokémon mega evolve was still an awe inspiring sight. Maximus's wings grew larger and power radiated from him. He stood there with a toothy grin on his face. Zack hugged him.

"You have grown so much Maximus, thank you. Now we will be even stronger."

"Well, I think this occasion deserves a round of cupcakes and pokepuffs," Terran said and headed into the kitchen. He reappeared with a tray of goodies. I got a pokepuff that was almost as good as the ones Laura had given me at the Pokémon Center, almost.

Point of View Change: Now from the Point of View of Coal.

The next month was filled with complete boredom. I slept, ate, read, watched TV, and went for short walks but I was still miserable. I know the time was worse for Shadow who was used to exploring forests and meadows. He had never had to live in a big city for this long. On occasion we would go with Terran to the children hospitals on his "Missions of Happiness."

Two weeks into this month we got word that Zack was not going to be blamed for the botched mission and they had found the rat. It was a girl named Rebecca. I actually knew her. She had been a good dependable ranger, not someone you would have suspected of being a rat. The only thing that put any suspicion on her was the fact that she had been a ranger five years and still didn't have a partner Pokémon. Most rangers find theirs in the first three years.

Unfortunately, Rebecca had escaped to some unknown location and was being searched for with no luck.

With only a few days left in the month I had a dream. This dream was unlike any other. Most dreams are foggy, unclear, random, and you don't remember them very clearly once you wake if at all. But I remember every tiny detail of this dream.

I could see an island in a sea of white. A mountain stood in the middle surrounded by a dense forest. There was a large sparkling lake on one side, and a vast desert on the other. Suddenly, I found myself face to face with a mega evolved Maximus. However, his eyes where pure white. He was holding me over a cliff by a strap of my safety harness. Zack stood behind him, his eyes pure white too. I called out to Zack, begging him to stop. Instead he grinned a sneer unlike I could ever have imagined his face producing. He ordered Maximus to drop me, and I fell to my death.

 _ **New chapters at least once a week, but probably more often. Feel free to review it and tell me how I am doing.**_


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Point of View: Coal

I woke up on the final day of my month long break feeling very well rested. I had been to the hospital yesterday and they said I was good to go. I was so ready to get back to work and I knew Zack and Shadow were too.

I looked around my room glad that I wasn't going to leaving it for good. I had grown very attached to this home during my time here and the other day I had asked the guys if I could live here permanently. They had been thrilled and admitted that they were going to ask me the same thing. Shadow seemed pleased with my choice as well. He had become very comfortable with the Pokémon here and enjoyed playing with them.

After eating breakfast I got dressed. I donned, for the first time in a month, my ranger uniform. It consisted of a red and black t-shirt and similarly color pants. I always wore a long sleeve black cotton shirt under the uniform to hide the scars on my arms. On my chest was a badge that said my name and rank. I was a level ten ranger, the highest you could get below mission leader. I strapped my new capture styler to my left wrist and my key stone to my right. I picked up Shadow's safety harness from the bed and went downstairs to find him.

Shadow was laying on the couch with three baby eevees climbing on him. Their mother was watching them but didn't seemed worried.

"You ready Shadow?" I asked. He nodded but looked back at the eevees on his back like they were impossible to move. I laughed and put the Pokémon on the floor. Shadow stood up and I put his harness on. It was easier to have him wear it because Pokémon harnesses come in so many sizes and shapes that it is often hard to find the right one at a ranger base in a rush. He shook himself to make sure it was on right then let out a noise of satisfaction.

Zack appeared from upstairs with Tulip on his shoulder. He was wearing a very different uniform. He was classified as an aerial ranger, even though he wasn't technically a true ranger. His uniform was black and blue and also had a yellow scarf and red goggles that sat on his head.

Zack grinned at me and gave me the thumbs up gesture. Terran came from outside with his flareon Flare on his shoulder.

"Good luck you two, be safe," Terran ordered us.

"Yes mother," Zack teased.

The walk to HQ was pleasant enough. The city streets where bustling with activity. The doors to the tall HQ building slid open with a soft whoosh. The high ceilinged room was simply designed to be as functional as possible. A counter stood on the far wall where operators worked. They recharged capture stylers and offered support in the form of information.

Zack and I walked up to them.

"Zack Florence and Coal Matter reporting for duty," Zack said.

"You are expected in meeting room 316," the operator said after checking her computer. "It seems they have a mission for you." Zack thanked her and we headed up to floor three.

"I wasn't expecting a mission so soon after getting back," I said.

"Well, we are awesome," Zack said jokingly.

There seemed to be something big going on because all the people we met in the halls were in a rush. The door to room 316 was open and one other ranger was already in there sitting at the table with her hands folded. A pidgeot was standing behind her chair. The girl was wearing the aerial ranger uniform and her dark blue hair was cut really short.

"Hi Riley, haven't seen you in a while," Zack greeted the ranger. Riley looked up at us and a smile crossed her face. She got out of her chair and fist bumped Zack.

"I thought you died or something, haven't seen you for a month," Riley said; I couldn't tell if she was being serious or not.

"Yeah, I had a month off after my mission almost got me and Coal here killed," Zack said with a nervous laugh.

"So this is the legendary Coal," Riley said looking me up and down. "You're shorter than I expected," was all she had to say before sitting back down. Zack sat down across from her and I sat down next to Zack. Tulip leapt off Zack's shoulder landing on the table where she sniffed Riley's hands. Riley petted her in response.

A few moments later a disgruntled ranger came running into the room with an arm load of paperwork. She dumped the papers on the table and turned off the lights. The projector came on and some thermal scans of the sky appeared on the board.

"Okay, my name is Lilly, and I know all your names so no need for introductions there simply isn't time for that. As you can see by the way everyone is acting something big might be going down, but we don't know what it is. A few days ago, our thermal scanners noticed something weird over the ocean on the northern end of Kalos. A large heat was discovered floating in the sky where no heat should be. However, whenever we send drones or rangers up there to investigate, strong winds blow them off course and they never get near the source of the heat. We suspect that if you can get high enough you might be able to fly over the winds and dive bomb whatever it is.

"Your Pokémon and yourselves will be given oxygen masks so you can survive at the heights you need to go to. We chose you three for very specific reasons. Riley you are the top aerial ranger, you should be able to navigate the winds at the altitude you will need to fly. Coal, you are our top area ranger, you have the skill to capture high level Pokémon and the ability to use them to get out of sticky situations. Zack, being that we have no idea what we are sending you into we don't know what kind of people or Pokémon you will run into it was decide that having a trainer and his Pokémon along was the best choice. Zack, you are the leader of this mission, keep the others safe and you two follow his every command. For the time being your operation is to find the source of the heat and investigate it, but that directive might change once we learn what the source is.

"Don has your gear all ready to go in the room across the hall. You will be in constant contact with us and must report everything you see. Good luck to you, and may the wind be under your wings."

This was a high level mission. The three of us rushed across the hall to get ready. Zack let out Maximus and Takage who were already wearing their safety harnesses. Don gave us each a backpack of basic supplies and an oxygen tank. Oxygen tanks were also strapped to the underbellies of the three flying Pokémon and Shadow's safety harness. I tightened my safety harness and donned my backpack. I slipped the mask over my head and let it hang around my neck; I would put it the rest of the way one once we got outside. With all our gear on and double checked we headed to the roof.

I was very hot with all our winter gear on that we need to survive the cold of the sky. Even Shadow had to wear a jacket. We checked our gear one more time then made sure all the Pokémon where wearing their masks. I slipped mine on but waited to turn in on till it was needed.

I climbed onto Maximus' back and strapped both Shadow and myself to his harness.

"Sound off," Zack said, his voice muffled by his mask.

"Ready," Riley said.

"Ready," I said.

"Ready," Zack said. "Turn your radios on." We each had a small ear piece in our ears under our special hoods that had a microphone attached that sat close to our mouths.

"Radio check," Zack said.

"I hear you loud and clear," Riley said.

"I hear you loud and clear," I repeated.

"We hear you all loud and clear," the operator in charge of keeping track of our progress said from her spot back in the building; her name is Aurora.

"Okay, Zack, stick to my right and Coal to my left," Riley ordered.

"Roger, to the right," Zack replied.

"Roger, to the left," I said. With that we launched into the sky. I flew just behind Riley and to the left and Zack just behind her and to the right, we were in a small V.

The going was boring for a while. We each had a device on our wrists that showed us our location and the location of the heat. It had moved from its location over the ocean where it first appeared and was now farther south over land.

We knew the moment we reached it. A wall of clouds loomed over us and a strong hot wind was trying to send us away.

"Turn on all oxygen masks, we are going up, we have reached the wind," Riley said. I turned on Maximus', Shadow's, and my oxygen tank. We followed Riley as she veered up and to the right in an attempt to spiral up and over the wall of wind. The temperature dropped dramatically and the wind got colder. We flew for a long time, occasionally flying straight into the wind only to find it was still too strong.

Finally, the wall of clouds disappeared and the wind vanished. We flew over the clouds and but couldn't see anything for a while. Then, we saw it. It was the island from my dream.

"I've seen this place before in a dream," I said through the microphone, but they didn't hear me, our radios were dead. And that wasn't the only thing that went wrong. Suddenly, all our flying Pokémon passed out and we fell like rocks.

Shadow mega evolved and tried to slow our descent but he had no luck. In the free fall I was having a hard time unlatching his harness from Maximus'. The island was getting closer and closer. There was nothing I could do but wait for us to become grease spots on the ground. I saw the other two struggling to wake up their Pokémon with no luck. Then, I managed to unlatch Maximus. He flew to Zack and pushed the button on one of his pokeballs on his belt.

Tulip was holding onto Shadow's harness. A pink barrier appeared around us, I recognized it as Protect. It might be just what we need to break the fall. The ground was very close now, any second and we would find out if we get to live or die.

The barrier hit the ground and cracked but didn't break. We were suspended in the air for a moment. Then the barrier disappeared and we dropped to the ground in several heaps. I just so happened to end up with Maximus on top of me. The crushing weight was suddenly lifted off of me as Maximus was returned to his pokeball.

Shadow stood over me making sure I was okay. Riley knelt next to her pidgeot taking off her harness. Zack pulled me to my feet and I dusted myself off.

"Aurora come in," Zack said tapping his ear piece. "HQ, anyone, hello? What happened?"

We had landed on the very edge of the floating island and I walked over to the drop off and looked down. All I could see was white swirling clouds.

"What happened to our flying Pokémon?" Riley asked worried.

"Something caused them, and only them, to pass out," I said. "I don't think anything natural could have caused this, is could have been caused by a machine of some kind."

"Coal's right. We need to explore and find the source," Zack declared. "Let's move."

"But what about Storm?" Riley asked. "We can't just leave her here."

"Right," Zack said. "Tyler, come on out." Zack's haxorus appeared and picked up the pidgeot.

"Okay, let's first try to find a cave or something that we can use as base camp," Zack explained. "We only have so much food so our first task will be to see if we can find some berries or other source of food. We don't know how long it will be until our Pokémon wake up and without radio contact with HQ we are on our own. Let's go."

Point Of View Change: male, human?

I soared above the forest, my silver feathered wings outstretched and powerful. The wind blew through my silver hair which felt amazing. I was wearing a simple white cotton outfit that didn't really keep me warm. The trees stopped and I flew just above the river. I could almost see the refection of my silver eyes in the water. Goldeen and magicarp swam against the current, their scales gleaming in the sun.

I tilted my wings and soared upwards. With powerful strokes I gained altitude. When I was high enough I tucked my wings against my back and free fell to the ground. I rotated and spun as I fell. At the last moment, I opened my wings again and soared back up narrowly missing a herd of gogoat and skiddo.

There was static in my head phones followed by someone coughing.

"Experiment 13805, come in Experiment 13805, over," a voice said through my head phones.

"This is Experiment 13805, what's the problem, over?" I asked.

"There seems to be a disturbance on the south side of the island between entrance tunnel 6 and cave entrance 14. Go see what it is but try not to be seen, over."

"I understand, talk to you again when I get there, over." I turned and flew south.

'What could it be?' I thought to myself. 'It must be something really troubling if they are sending me to check it out during my free time.'

I put on a burst of speed and wobbled in a rather unstable manner. I spread my arms out to try to regain some balance. I flew straight through a cloud then had to wipe the condensation from my goggles with my gloves. I flew for a while looking for the proper place. Once I found it, I landed in a small grove of trees.

My shoes touched down with a jolt. I folded my wings against my back and started walking. I first checked entrance tunnel 6 but found that it was secure. No one had opened it. It was designed to look like a bolder and unless you knew it was there and how to open it you would pass right over it without a second thought.

Second I made my way to cave entrance 14. It looked like a small cave but if you went further into it you would discover that it led to a network of cave tunnels that crisscrossed throughout the island. What I saw outside the cave shocked me.

A huge haxorus stood there looking worried; a pidgeot was at his feet and it looked dead. Then, a girl and two guys a little older than me came out of the cave. One had an absol and the other a sylveon. The girl checked on the Pokémon laying on the ground.

I was hiding behind a tree and wanted to get a closer look but I wasn't supposed to be seen. I wondered how they got here; no one was supposed to be able to get onto the island. Then, the absol stiffened. He sent a Night Slash in my direction. I jumped out of the way but this involved jumping out from behind the tree. The tree fell over with a crash and everyone froze for several long seconds. I was the first to react launching myself into the sky with one powerful stroke and flying away as fast as I could go.

"Home Base come in," I said to my microphone. "This is Experiment 13805 reporting in, over."

"Go ahead Experiment 13805, over."

"There are two human males, one human female, and their Pokémon camped out in cave entrance 14. The confirmed Pokémon are haxorus, absol, sylveon, and pidgeot, over." There was a short silence.

"Were they wearing uniforms, over?"

"Yes, two blue ones and a red one, over."

"Did they see you, over?"

"Yes, over." Another short silence.

"Report back to your cell, over."

"Understood, over."

I looked back over my shoulder wondering at the people. If they wanted me back in my cell then I must be in danger.

I flew up the side of the mountain. At the very top was a large circular metal hole that went straight down. I dived down this for several hundred feet. Then I rotated so my head was up and my wings spread out. I floated gently to the ground.

I walked toward a large metal door that could have withstood a bomb. I punched in the code and the door groaned open. A rush of cold air hit me in the face. I entered the metal tunnel and the door closed behind me. I navigated the maze of hallways perfectly having lived here my whole life. I passed a scientist in the hall. He was looking at a handheld screen and didn't noticed me as I walked by him. I entered an elevator and went down 10 floors. When the door opened I turned right and walked for 50 feet before walking through a door on the left.

I walked down another hall way. On either side of me were holding cells with all kinds of creatures in them. Most where barely alive, mismatched Pokémon that didn't live more than a few days. Some were stable but imperfect. I paused at a cell that contained a pure white poochyena. His tail was longer than a normal poochyena and dragged on the ground behind him. His ears where shaped kind of like an eevee. He had a very sweet demeanor. I crouched down and put my had on the glass. The Pokémon rushed over put his front paws on the glass opposite my hand, his blue eyes glimmering with happiness.

"How are you doing little guy?" I asked.

He responded with a yip that I translated as, "I'm fine."

"Okay, good. Bye," I said as I slowly got up and walked away. He called out "goodbye" after me.

I made it to my cell and entered the proper code. The door slid open with a whoosh and I entered.

The place was comfortable enough, a bed, a book shelf, a dresser, a TV, a toilet, a sink, and a desk sat in the pure white room. Really, three walls, the floor, and celing are white; the fourth wall was glass and I could see the cell across the hall from me. Today some kind of ponyta, starly, human hybrid huddled in a corner standing in a puddle of Pokémon food, blood, and feathers. Yesterday a different creature was in there; it must had died

I kicked off my shoes and left them by the door. I fell face first onto my bed and sighed. Feeding time was soon, but I wasn't really looking forward to it. I pulled off my head phones, goggles, and gloves, and set them on the bedside table. I just lay there for almost an hour. I didn't sleep, I just lay there.

I watched as a scientist walked down the hall with a cart. He opened my door and set a tray of food on the desk. I watched him silently. Once he left I got up and sat down at the desk. There was some kind of cheesy noodle dish and a cup with a sort of berry smoothie. There was also a bottle of water.

I devoured my food then sat back.

"That was good," I said out loud. I sprang over to my bed and sat down. I turned on the TV and watched some show for a while until I fell asleep.

 _ **New Chapters every few days.**_


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Point of View: Shadow

"What in the world is that?" I yelled jumping out of the way of a Hyper Beam. The creature had a very deformed human head, the neck of a lapras, the body of arcanine, and the tail of a seviper. It lashed at me with Iron Tail which I countered with Night Slash.

"Use Shadow Ball!" Coal yelled the command. I jumped over a fallen tree and blasted the creature with a ghostly orb. It staggered back but didn't fall.

"Psycho Cut?!" Coal said less certainly. I tried it and sent pink blades of psychic energy at the thing and this time the creature fell over KO'd.

"What is that?" Riley asked, she sounded disgusted.

"Someone is experiment by mixing human and Pokémon genetics," Coal said holding his nose and gently poking the creature with a stick. It certainly had a powerful smell to it, I wouldn't call it bad but to a human it could very possibly be unpleasant.

"Where'd it come from?" Zack asked. I sniffed around the ground for a while and found the trail. We were outside of our base camp cave, and the trail lead to the west. I followed it straight to a, boulder?

"What is it Shadow?" Coal asked. I put both front paws on the boulder and sniffed it, yes it came from here. I looked back at Coal and knocked my claws on the rock.

"It came from there?" Riley asked.

"Normally I wouldn't question an absol's nose, but are you sure your sniffer is working Shadow?" Zack said. I rolled my eyes.

"Of course my nose works," I said.

"He seems to think it came from the boulder, but I don't see how," Coal said.

"Oh come on, it must open up or something!" I yelled, but they just looked at me, confused. I started examining the rock but couldn't find any way that it would open. In the end I just gave it up and went back to our cave. I lay down discouraged and the others sat down too.

"Okay, so here is what we know," Riley began. "We are stuck on a floating island, which is impossible by the way. We have seen two examples of human Pokémon hybrids, while maybe not impossible that is extremely improbable. And, Shadow here says that last one came from a rock. Great, I am either stuck in a nightmare cooked up by Darkrai, or I dead and this is hell."

"Well, while I don't think either of those two theories are correct," Zack started, "We certainly are in a very strange situation and we need to get to the bottom of this."

"And how do we do that?" Coal asked. No one had any answers. I huffed and stretched out on my side. This is going to be a long day.

Point of View Change: Experiment 13805

I was laying strapped to a table. There where electrodes all over my body and an IV bag of sedatives attached to my arm through a needle. The sedatives wouldn't knock me out, but they would kill any pain. My shirt was gone and there were some marks on my stomach. I was very used to this kind of thing. There were already several scars on my chest from these test and dissections. I wasn't sure what they were doing this time, but I heard something about a routine check up on my organ function.

A scientist came into the room with a white surgical mask on. He took a blade from the little spread of them and prepared to cut me open.

A siren whirred and the scientist dropped the knife onto the floor in surprise.

"You idiot, that could have caused me to kill this experiment," he cursed as he left the room to make sure it didn't happen again. He didn't come back and I got bored. Finally, a grunt came in and unstrapped me. I pulled out the IV and sat up.

He led me out of the room and down a bunch of hallways. He gestured toward a door that I knew was the leader's office, though I had never met him before.

I opened the door and walked in. The lighting was dim, and a large wall screen displayed a bunch of numbers and statistics that I didn't understand. A very tall man stood with his back to me, looking at the screen.

"Experiment 13805," the man addressed me without turning around, "What is your purpose here?" I answered the way I had been conditioned to answer.

"My purpose is to do whatever it is I am told to do, no matter what. I was created here and to my creators I own my life and obeisance." I had never questioned these words; I never had a reason to.

"Good," the man said. "I have a job for you. I need you to kill the intruders."

"Yes sir," I answered without hesitation, not really understanding what this implied.

"I am glad you agreed, we will give you the weapons you need. Grunt, get him ready," he told a person standing in the corner of the room. I was lead out into the hall and down another batch of corridors. Then I was lead into a room full of all kinds of weapons. I was geared up in black clothing made of some kind of extremely durable cloth. I was given gloves that would send a current of electricity through whatever I touch if I touched it the right way. I was also given a pistol strapped to my hip. In the rush I didn't get any headphones.

"We want you to kill the humans but not the Pokémon. They are very strong and can use them in our experiments. However, if you have to kill the Pokémon because they are about to kill you or because you can't kill the humans unless you kill the Pokémon that is an understandable loss."

I made my way toward the top of the base where the large circular tube to the top of the mountain is. I launched myself up the tube and into the sky. I didn't think much during the flight to the south end of the island, I just wanted to be done with it. I had never killed anything before and but didn't think I would have a problem with it. I had seen many experiments become irreverent and be terminated so I knew how fragile and purposeless life is.

I found the cave and landed. I drew the gun and walked toward the cave. It was the middle of the day and only the girl was here. Her back was toward me. I prepared to squeeze the trigger when I heard a voice behind me yell, "Psycho Cut!" Pink blades of energy knocked the gun out of my hands. I whirled around and found myself face to face with a mega evolved absol.

I flew at the Pokémon and launch a Steel Wing attack at it. It hit him knocking him over. I flew up into the sky a little ways before I was hit by a Night Slash. I fell to the ground with a thud. I got up and ran at the Pokémon. He used Thunder Bolt and it fried the gloves; they were no good anymore. I pulled them off and threw them on the ground.

The boy directing the absol nodded the to girl behind me. I didn't bother paying much attention to this however and instead took the moment to blast the absol with Hyper Beam. The absol leapt out of the way without his trainer telling him to do so. This angered me and I was about to use Steal Wing again when something crushed me from above. It was a pidgeot. I tried to use Hidden Power but that move still wasn't working right and it just fizzled out. The pidgeot used Peck and I was out cold.

Point of View Change: Riley

Storm stood on top of the creature. It was KO'd, just like a Pokémon.

"Is it a Pokémon or a human?" I asked Zack who suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

"I think it's both," Zack said and I pondered this. Storm got off the boy/Pokémon thing and Coal started tying it up. I wasn't sure what it was about Coal, but he sent off an unpleasant vibe.

"You think he knows what is going on here?" Coal asked.

"It might, but we will have to wait until it wakes up," Zack said. If it was me, we would have left long ago, but for some reason, our flying Pokémon could only fly several hundred feet above the ground, not nearly enough to fly over the wall of clouds.

I turned my back when suddenly the boy/Pokémon thing woke up and started struggling.

"Whoa, whoa, I'm not done yet!" Coal yelled out as Zack came to help hold the thing down. They managed to get it tied up all the way, its wings and arms pinned to its back.

"Let me out!" the creature cried. I was shocked. I had assumed that it, like the last hybrid we encountered, wouldn't be able to speak. Both the boys stood up and backed away too.

The boy/Pokémon glared at all of us. It wouldn't stop struggling against the ropes.

"Uh, now what?" Coal whispered to Zack. Zack took this as an invitation to make a fool of himself.

"Hi, uh, we come here in peace," Zack said stupidly. The boy/Pokémon rolled his eyes.

"Yeah right, if that is the case why am I tied up?" it questioned.

"Because you tried to kill me?" I said. The creature had no response to this.

"What's your name?" Coal asked gently crouching down in front of it.

"Experiment 13805," the boy/Pokémon mumbled. Coal nodded slowly.

"Can I call you Wings? Experiment 13805 isn't really a proper name, and someone like you deserves a real name." Coal's voice was gentle, like he was talking to a child or an injured Pokémon. I had never heard him sound like this and I realized he actually has a gentle, not creepy, side to him.

The boy/Pokémon seemed speechless as if it had never considered itself worthy of a real name.

"I guess you can call me that, if you want to," it looked down. Coal nodded.

"Okay Wings, why did you attack Riley here," he gestured to me.

"I was told to," Wings said.

"Who told you too?" Coal asked. Wings ignored the question and instead asked:

"What are you doing here?"

"We want to find the people who are experimenting on Pokémon and make them stop," Coal explained.

"Coal are you sure you want to tell it that?" Zack asked. "After all, it is our enemy."

"I don't think HE is though," Coal said putting emphasis on the he.

"Why do you want to make the scientists stop?" Wings asked.

"Because what they are doing it wrong," Coal explained. "Experimenting on Pokémon and humans is not okay. It is immoral and unfair to the creatures they create, like you; it is unfair to you."

Wings seemed puzzled at this. He was silent for several minutes and I could almost see the gears turning.

"So, you don't want them making life just to kill it, right?" Wings asked.

"Exactly," Coal said. "And if you want, you can help us and then you will get to be free, you won't have to do what they say anymore." I thought he was getting somewhere, but then the boy/Pokémon started struggling again.

"But I was made by them, I have to do what they say!" the thing shouted.

"Just give it up Coal, you aren't going to change its mind," I sighed, but Coal held his hand up silencing me.

"You are wrong Wings," he said taking on a stern tone for the first time. This made the creature stop struggling.

"Living things have something called rights. It means they can't just cut you open whenever they want."

"Why do you care?" it asked. Then Coal did something I wasn't expecting, he took off his uniform shirt and his undershirt. I wondered why he wore the undershirt and now I knew. Just like Zack, his chest and arms where covered in scars.

"Because bad scientist did this to me, and I am willing to bet they are doing the same thing to you," Coal said. Wings looked down at his own chest and nodded.

"Do you have anyone you care about? Anything you don't want them destroying?" Coal asked going on a limb.

"There is this Pokémon in a cell a few down from mine," Wings said shocking me, I didn't expect that he would have anything he cared about. "It is successful but they are probably going to terminate it soon," Wings looked up with tears in his eyes. "He is my friend and I don't want him to be terminated!" Coal nodded.

"We are going to save your friend Wings. We are going to save them all, but we need your help."

"Okay, I will help you," Wings said. Coal started untying him and Zack flipped out.

"You are actually going to trust that thing? It isn't even human." Coal stood up anger flaring in his eyes. He got right up in Zack's face.

"He is a living being who is being mistreated and taken advantage of! Unless you have forgotten you and I were the same way once! What do you think would have happened if the rest of us didn't trust you? Huh?!" Zack backed down and hung his head. Coal finished untying Wings and the boy stood up. He looked about 14.

"How old are you Wings?" I asked. He had to think for a moment counting something on his fingers.

"17 years old," he said.

"No way, you look way younger!" I said shocked.

"He is probably malnourished," Coal explained. "Wings, do you know how to get into the labs?"

"Uh, yeah, if you can fly I can take you right to the main entrance," Wings said.

"We need a less guarded entrance," Zack said. Wings had to think for a second.

"Well, there are lots of other entrances hidden throughout the island, but I don't know how to open them."

"Can you show us one?" Coal asked. Wings nodded and lead us to the rock that Shadow had been obsessed with before.

"This is one, but like I said, I don't know how to open it." Shadow mumbled something in Pokémon speech that I didn't understand.

"Your absol knows some pretty foul words," Wings said shocking everyone.

"You understand Pokémon?" Zack asked.

"Well duh, I am part Pokémon," Wings said. Even Shadow looked surprised. Then he said something else to Wings.

"Uh, no I will not tell Zack that," Wings said.

"What did he say?" Zack demanded. Wings sighed.

"He says you are an idiot with no sense of direction." Zack laughed startling Wings.

"Yeah, that is probably true," Zack said.

"Guys, we are getting off track," Coal pointed out.

"Uh, right," Zack said. "The rock." The boys examined the rock for a while but ended up giving up.

"Is there no other way into the labs?" Coal asked.

"There is one," Wings started. "But it is hidden somewhere in the maze of tunnels under the island. It could take forever to find. I think I know where it is, but I have never been in the tunnels myself and could get us lost."

"Coal has a perfect sense of direction, he can get us out if we get lost," Zack declared.

"Okay, the nearest entrance to the tunnels is that cave you are staying in."

"Then let's move out!" Zack said enthusiastically and we were off.

Point of View Change: Maximus

I was out of my pokeball and using my tail to light the way in the tunnels. Shadow and the others followed behind me but Wings walked right next to me on my right. I glanced down at him. He smelled really strange, not like a human really, but not really like a Pokémon. From his smell I would have to say he is a staraptor, skarmory, and a human, that would explain why his wings looked like a staraptor but are silver.

"So, kid, you can understand me right?" I asked.

"Of course," he replied.

"You talking to Maximus, Wings?" Zack asked.

"Yes," Wings said.

I wanted to talk to him more but I didn't really have anything to say.

"Maximus? Why are you black?" Wings asked.

"I'm a shiny, that's what the humans call us. We are just off colored Pokémon, really rare actually," I explained. Wings nodded. We walked in awkward silence for several minutes. Coal started whistling but Riley shot him a look and he stopped. He pulled his hood over his head obscuring his face and stuck his hands in his jacket pockets. I had seen him do that before, no matter what you did you wouldn't be able to talk to him until he took his hood off. But apparently Riley didn't know this.

"So Coal," she started, "Where'd you get those scars?" Coal didn't answer.

"Uh, Coal?" Riley said waving her hand in front of his face to no response. "What's wrong with him?" she whispered to Zack. "Is he broken?"

"Very," was all Zack said. Riley shook herself and walked up so she was on my left.

"That guy is weird," she whispered across me to Wings. Wings looked back at Coal who was slouching and trudging along.

"Maybe, but he seems nice," Wings whispered back.

"Hey, Wings," Shadow said, "How much farther."

"A long way yet," Wings said and Shadow huffed, he wasn't the most patient Pokémon.

Before long we came to a cross road. The road split into three different ways.

"Which way now?" Zack asked. Wings paused for a moment, then he crouched down and drew something in the dirt on the floor. I brought my tail closer to it and found I couldn't understand the lines and symbols at all.

"Okay," Wings said standing up. He pointed straight ahead, "in that direction is a cave full of crystals, but there isn't anything else in there." Next he pointed to the right, "That way leads to the desert, but we don't want to go there either." Last he pointed to the left, "And that way leads to the mountain. It should start heading down deeper into the ground and it will get cold, but once it gets hot again we will be getting close."

"So we want to go to the left?" Riley asked.

"Yes," Wings said. We headed left and Zack had to grab Coal by the arm and steer him in the right direction because he had shut out the outside world.

Wings had been right, we walked downhill for a while and it got colder, even Coal shivered and that kid was a beartic. Then we encountered something we didn't expect, a steel wall.

"Now what?" Riley said. Suddenly, Coal collapsed, a tranquilizer dart sticking out of his back. Shadow roared and tried to mega evolve but found he couldn't without Coal. I on the other hand did mega evolve and my roar shook the walls. Riley's pidgeot Storm stood ready and Wings dragged Coal behind the rest of us.

Out of the darkness, they charged.

 _ **New chapters every few days.**_


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Point of View: Coal

I found myself on the Tyler's back. We were running at top speed down a tunnel. I was warm but found that I couldn't move. The last thing I remembered was leaving the real world and diving into my thoughts. I cursed myself for doing that again; it was a habit I was trying to break.

Tyler tripped but didn't drop me. We were in the back of the group where the light from Maximus' tail was weak. I could hear scuttling behind us like a hoard of bug Pokémon.

"To the left," Wings called out as we found ourselves at a crossroad. We veered the way he ordered and the air heated up dramatically. I tried to move again but found I was still paralyzed. We suddenly slid to a halt when the path dead ended. Tyler whirled around and backed up letting Maximus, Leon, Storm, and Shadow take front.

A thunderbolt attack was aimed at our group. It was so powerful that it hit all of us. Tyler managed not to drop me. A white string shout out from the darkness and wrapped around Leon dragging him toward the enemy. The others were too slow to stop it and Leon was taken from us. Maximus shot a Flame Thrower into the darkness hitting our enemy and letting us see what they were. To no one's surprise, they were more hybrids; mix mashed bug Pokémon. Two or three different bug Pokémon where mixed into each of the creatures and there where about 30 enemies blocking us in, Leon was nowhere to be seen.

It became a mess of limbs and attacks as everyone leapt into the fray; even Wings joined in the fight. But we were outnumbered. One by one our allies fell and were dragged away. Zack let out his remaining Pokémon, Takage, Tulip, and Lex, but they two were dragged off into the darkness. Tyler handed me to Zack who slung me over his shoulder and joined in the fight, but even he was taken down. All that was left of our party was three defenseless humans against a hoard of powerful Pokémon. Zack was attacked and knocked to the ground where he was quickly tied up and dragged away. Riley succumbed a moment latter and I two was wrapped in a sticky web and thrown across the back of an ariados hybrid. It was dark, and I still couldn't move.

With only the noise of my captor's feet I lost track of time. The caves got cold again and I shivered in my now ripped up jacket, how it had gotten that way I didn't know but it must have happened when I was unconscious. What seemed like a long time passed before I saw any light. When I did it was the light of electric lamps attached to the celing of the cave. We walked along this path for a while before it ended in an elevator. Into this we scrambled and up it went.

The door dinged and opened. Out into a well-lit, clean, metal hall way we walked. Before long we entered through a door on the left and I saw a sight that horrified me. Cells of hybrid Pokémon were on either side of the hallway. Horribly mutated and barely alive creatures lay dying in pools of blood. We walked along like this for a while before we walked past the cell that contained Leon. He had a chain around his neck that was attached to the far wall of his cell so he couldn't directly attack the glass. We soon passed other cells with Zack's Pokémon, and then pasted Shadow.

When Shadow saw me he flipped out. Sending attack after attack at the glass to no effect. A few seconds later we past him and saw the cell with Zack who was huddled in a corner with his arms wrapped around his legs, his knees against his chest. Riley was in the cell across from him bagging on the glass. Then we came to an empty cell, into this I was dropped and the Pokémon cut me free.

Once he left I struggled to move. I managed to sit up and look into the cell across from mine, it held Wings. He was laying on his back on the floor staring at the celing. I could see a chain around his ankle that was attacked to the far wall. His arms were stretched out and so were his wings. I shakily stood up and knocked on the glass.

Wings looked over at me but his expression remained blank as if he didn't recognize me and I realized he was heavily drugged. My legs gave out under me and I sat down hard. I lay down on my back against the glass, my hands behind me head. I wasn't sure what was going to happen to us, but I knew I wasn't going to like it.

Point of View Change: White Poochyena Hybrid

The lighting in the cell hall was dimmed signaling that it was night time. I silently fazed through the glass wall of my cell like I did most nights. I floated a few feet off the ground looking for my friend. I had seen him being carried through here before.

He wasn't in his normal cell so I wandered father and found him sleeping on his back on the floor. I fazed though the glass and tried to wake him up by head butting his head.

"Wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up!" I said head butting him each time. He opened his eyes and looked at me, but didn't seem to recognize me.

"Hey, you okay?" I asked. He didn't respond. I looked around confused and saw a human in the cell across the hall. I floated into his cell and head butted him awake.

"Who are you?" the human asked.

"I am me, who are you?" I asked back and giggled at myself.

"I'm Coal," the boy said. "You look like a poochyena/ eevee. But you are white, no you are light pink." I flew circles around the room for a minute then hovered vertically in front of Coal who was now sitting cross-legged against the glass.

"What is wrong with my friend?" I asked pointing to him across the hall. Coal looked over his shoulder.

"He is drugged," Coal sighed.

"Is that bad?" I asked.

"Yeah," Coal said.

"If I let you out, can you help him?" I asked.

"You can let me out?"

"Yeah, but you have to help him."

"Yes," Coal said standing up. "I will help him if you let me and my friends out."

"Okay." I floated over to the control panel and fazed through it while releasing a strong current of electricity. It fried the board and opened the door.

"Will the scientists know this door is open?" Coal asked walking out it.

"Nope!" I said proudly and proceeded to fry the lock on my friend's door. Coal rushed in and cursed.

"He is chained up," Coal explained.

"I can break it," I said using Cut and breaking the thingy on his ankle. Coal picked my friend up and slung him over his shoulder.

"We need to let out the others," Coal said.

"Weeeee, this is fun!" I said as I fazed back through the wall. I broke the locks on all the doors Coal asked me too. Soon we had freed two other humans and eight Pokémon,

"I need my pokeballs," the human boy, Zack, said.

"Okay," I said. A moment later a belt with pokeballs appeared in my paws.

"Here," I handed the belt to Zack.

"How did you do that?" Zack asked.

"I just did."

"How do we get out of here?" Coal asked.

"Well, we could go the way with the booms, or the way with the slide."

"Slide sound better," the girl Riley said.

"Okay! Follow me!" I flew back the way we had come. Six of the Pokémon went into their pokeballs and the rest followed me. I lead them to a door that I promptly broke. Inside was the control room. I flew around the room while the others explored.

"Hey, this controls the flight limit of the sky!" Riley said.

"Can I break it?" I asked, I liked breaking things.

"Yes!" Zack said. I zapped it and the green light went away, but the red one didn't come one.

"The red light didn't come on," Riley said.

"Well duh, I broke it not turned it off."

"Where is this slide?" Coal asked.

"Right here," I tapped a door labeled "Garbage." "It leads outside the mountain!"

"I'll go first, send Wings after me," Riley said and disappeared down the chute. After a minute I said, "She is at the bottom now."

They pushed my friend who they called Wings down the chute, then the Pokémon went, then the boy called Coal. Finally I jumped into the arms of Zack and road down with him yelling Weeeeee all the way.

"That was fun!" I said once everyone was standing on a hill of trash.

"Now what?" Coal asked.

"Now we leave," Zack said.

"What do we do with Wings?" Riley asked.

"I'll carry him!" I volunteered

"Are you sure?" Coal asked me. In response I hooked my front paws into the back of his shirt collar and he floated off the ground just like me. After that, the humans climbed onto their Pokémon and flew up into the sky. Riley led the way on her pidgeot Storm.

"This is fun!" I yelled. However, I soon got bored. We flew for a long time, the only really fun part was when I made a barrier around everyone so we could breathe when we flew over the cloud wall. But then we flew back down where we could breathe and I didn't need to make the barrier again.

The sun rise was fun too. It was really pretty, but everyone was sleepy and didn't really pay attention to it. Finally we reached the place we were looking for, a tall building thingy in this huge thingy they called a city. We landed on the top of the building thingy and the fun black charizard and the bravery went in those dumb pokeball thingies. I like the word thingy.

The sun was up and only a few seconds after we landed a bunch of people came up on the top of the building thingy. It was chaos for a while and I stuck close to Coal who I liked, mostly I lay on his head. Wings got put on a white rolly bed and taken somewhere else in the building thingy. Coal, Zack, Riley, and their Pokémon and I ended up in this room where we got food. It was the yummiest food I had ever eaten. It was these brown nubs that tasted really good. I sat down next to my bowl with my tale wrapped around my hind legs and picked up the nubs with my front paws and stuffed my face.

My new human friends where telling a few other humans what happened on the floating island. It was a fun story because I didn't know the first part. I chimed in a lot when they got to the part where I came into the story.

I ran out of food and started chasing the sylveon Tulip around the room. She was fun and we played a game she called tag. After a while I curled up on Coal's lap, he was sitting on a couch in the room, and I fell asleep.

Point of View Change: Coal

I sat back against the couch with our light pink savior on my lap. I gently petted him; his fur was super soft. I wasn't sure what other Pokémon that went into his creation was but I was sure it was a psychic type. His tail was longer than his body and no doubt the softest part of him. His face looked like a perfect mix of a poochyena and an eevee, but his body was much more like a poochyena.

We had been told that we would have as much time as we wanted to rest but we were going to be on house arrest at ranger HQ in case they needed any more information and in case someone came after us. They said once Wings woke up he would join us.

Our room was nice enough. I was sitting on the couch in the living room. Four doors lead to bedrooms and other to a bathroom. This space was generally used for honored guests whenever we had any. Shadow was asleep on the couch next to me. Riley and Zack had fled into their rooms once our integration was over. I had gotten a little sleep on Maximus so I wasn't truly tired.

The Pokémon on my lap rolled over in his sleep. I needed to think up a name for him, something that fit his personality. I looked a soda can that was sitting on the coffee table. It was Sprite. I could hear the bubbles ping on the sides of the can. Sprite was bubbly, just like this Pokémon, and it was clear, rather like the way this Pokémon said his thoughts at all times. Also, the name Sprite just seemed too fit. I decided that if he liked it, I would call him Sprite. I fell asleep without realizing it.

I woke up to a sharp pain in my forehead.

"Ouch," I said opening my eyes to see a pair of blue ones staring at me.

"Wings is here, Coal," the mouth under my eyes said.

Indeed, Wings was standing by the TV looking rather uncomfortable.

"Wings! You're okay!" I said stand up and embracing him. He didn't hug back and instead said, "What are you doing?"

"Oh, it's called a hug," I said.

"Like this?" Wings said hugging me, and I embraced him back before pulling away.

"What's it for?" Wings asked.

"You do it when you are happy to see someone you are close to, like a friend," I explained.

"Weeeeeeee!" Sprite called chasing his own tail in midair.

"Oh, right come here." Sprite came and hovered in front of me his belly facing me and his back away, he hovered like that a lot.

"I was wondering if you'd like the name Sprite," I asked. Sprite gasped and starting flying all around the room.

"It is perfect! I have a name! I have a name! I have a name!" He came to rest in front of me. "Thank you!" he said flying all around the room again. His noise woke up Zack who came out of his room yawning. When he saw Wings he rushed over and embraced him, this time Wings responded in kind.

"So glad to see you are okay buddy!" Zack said when he pulled away. Sprite fazed through Riley's wall still saying, "I have a name," and a scream came from Riley.

"Get out of here! Don't look!"

Sprite came flying back through the door with his paws over his eyes.

"Sorry!" he called out before crashing into the wall. I caught him and he shook himself and then jumped on my head, and lay there his front paws on my forehead and his tale hanging down past my neck. The three of us sat down on the couch and we explained to Wings where he was.

"So, I am actually free?" Wings clarified once we finished explaining things to him.

"Well, yeah," I said.

"But we have to stay in this building for a while!" Sprite said from his spot on my head.

"That's fine," Wings said. Riley came out of her room dressed in plain blue jeans and a form fitting t-shirt colored like a pokeball. She wore only black socks on her feet. We had all had a showers last night and gotten fresh clothes. I was wearing my usual black jeans and black long sleeve shirt. Zack wore a white tank top and blue jeans. Wings was also wearing blue jeans and a plain white t-shirt with slits in the back for his wings.

"Why do human's where clothes?" Sprite asked.

"Because we are cursed!" Zack said in a spooky voice.

"Oooh, what is the curse?" Sprite asked intrigued and I had to stifle a laugh, even Riley was smiling.

"Humans are cursed to be scared of each other when they are naked, so we have to wear clothes so we don't get scared and die!" Zack said.

"That is interesting," Sprite said. "Is that true Coal?"

"Well, sort of. We won't die if we see each other without clothes though, we just don't like it. Plus we don't have fur to keep us warm, so we wear clothes."

"I would be cold without my fur," Sprite said.

Point of View Change: Shadow

The rest of the day was very relaxing. Wings and Zack talked a lot about the world and how stuff worked and Riley watched TV. Coal taught Sprite how to play chess and Sprite moved the pieces without touching them. I had never seen Coal loose to anyone at chess but after Sprites first game that he lost, he beat Coal three times in a row. I could tell Coal was impressed and this winning streak only confirmed our suspicion that Sprite was part psychic type, but which one. The way he flew around the room and giggled at everything seemed so familiar but I couldn't place it. Then I thought about the long tail and the upright posture he takes while hovering.

"Sprite, tell Coal I think you are part Mew." Sprite nodded at me.

"Shadow thinks I am part Mew," Sprite said. Everyone stopped talking.

"Shadow, you are right!" Coal yelled. "He has to be, he is so much like Mew!"

"No, way…" Riley said. It took the room a while to get over the shock, but eventually everyone went back to what they were doing, however, there remained a slight tension in the room.


	7. Chapter 7

_**Sorry if it is a little slow, it's mostly set up.**_

Chapter 7

Point of View Change: Sparks the pachirisu

After Laura won the Kalos Pokepuff Contest we barely got a moments peace. Reporters, cookbook authors, bloggers, everyone wanted Laura's recipe. She politely refused to give it to anyone though, even for substantial amounts of money. Today we were sitting in a nice warm restaurant in Snowbelle City. We had finally escaped the reporters and were trying to eat quickly before someone found us. John was stuffing his face right along with his Pokémon who sat around us. Over the last month John had managed to get four gym badges and his team now consisted of a staraptor, a fearow, a quilladin, a growlithe, and a pichu.

I loved playing with Pichu, he was so much fun. I finished eating soon after the others did and all but Growlithe went into their pokeballs.

"I'm going to challenge the gym tomorrow; I need to train Growlithe some more," John said as he put his black baseball cap on. He wore brown pants, a blue t-shirt and he slipped on his black jacket made of the material used for police clothing. Before Laura could respond he and his Pokémon ran out the door.

"The only thing that kid thinks about is his next battle," Laura said shaking her head. "What do you want to do now Sparks?"

I just shrugged not really caring what we do. Laura slipped on her jacket and I leapt onto her shoulder. We stepped outside and were hit with a blast of frigid wind that whipped her skirt about.

"Brrrr," Laura said. "Let's go find a clothing store and purchase some warmer clothes." Even I shivered in the wind and figured I would try to get Laura to buy me a jacket too. We made our way across town toward the clothing store. It had just started snowing again when we made it inside.

"Welcome, is there anything I could help you find?" a friendly woman asked.

"Yes, I need some warmer clothes and I would like a jacket for my friend here," she gestured to me on her shoulder.

"Okay, follow me." Laura found some leggings made of mareep wool that were supposed to be super warm and she found a bright pink down jacket. I found a matching jacket that I looked super cute in. We made our purchase and donned our new clothes. I was significantly warmer when we stepped back outside.

The wind had died down and it was gently snowing.

"Wow, look at that Sparks," Laura said looking straight up. "It is amazing." We found ourselves at a park where children and Pokémon were playing. I leapt off Laura's shoulder and ran up to dedenne who was sitting alone on a seesaw. I jumped on the other side and the dedenne's face lit up. We played on the seesaw for a while then ended up jumping off and chasing each other around the snow piles.

"Sparks!" Laura called. I stood on the top of one of these snow piles and she saw me.

"Sparks, you shouldn't run off like that," she scolded me.

"I'm sorry," I hung my head and looked at the ground.

"Oh, it's okay, I know you didn't mean it." I leapt into her arms and she held me close to her chest. We made our way back to the Pokémon Center. A small gathering of people sat on the cluster of couches, but John wasn't among them. Laura sat down across from a girl who was brushing a purugly.

"That is a nice looking purugly," Laura said in an attempt to start a conversation. The girl looked up and her face was nearly as squashed looking as her Pokémon. I had to stifle a laugh because she looked so funny.

"Why thank you," the girl said. "She is the descendent of the Pokémon of kings."

"Oh really? Which king?" Laura asked.

"Uh," the girl drew a blank. I laughed again because even with her bragging she didn't even know what she was bragging about. "Important ones," was the answer the girl finally came up with.

"That's… nice," Laura said at a loss for words.

"Hey! Laura!" John said waving at us, his pichu sat on his shoulder and his growlithe ran at his ankles. He sat down next to us and looked over at the purugly.

"Do you battle?" he asked the girl. She looked his scruffy, sloppy self up and down with a look of disgust.

"Not with people like you," the girl said sticking her noise up, the purugly copied her movement.

"What's wrong with me?" John said.

"You are, well, so out of my league."

"Cool, come on, I like a challenge."

"Ugh, no means no."

"Fine," John pouted. He started tapping his left foot when something made of metal hit the ground.

"Darn, not again," he cursed under his breath. He rolled up his pant leg to revel that his left leg below his knee was in fact a metal pipe-like prosthetic. A small screw had fallen out. John picked up the screw and pulled a screwdriver out of his backpack. After putting it back in place he let his pant leg fall back down hiding the prosthetic. The girl with the purugly had a look of horror on her face.

"What's wrong?" John asked.

"You're, you're, you're," she stuttered.

"What?" John said tilting his head.

"A cripple," she whispered.

"Huh?" John asked not hearing.

"A cripple!" she yelled standing up and pointing looking horrified. Everyone in the Pokémon Center stopped talking looked over to see what this disturbance was. John sighed and stood up looking at the floor. He touched her pointing hand and she withdrew it like he was contagious.

"You spoiled pampered brat," John said quietly. "What do you know about anything?!" he yelled tears in his eyes.

"John," Laura said putting a hand on his shoulder.

"I'm fine," John said taking a deep breath. Then he ran off toward the rooms.

"John wait!" Laura called and ran after him. He locked himself in his room.

"John, let me in," Laura said knocking on the door. He didn't answer.

"I'm going to go make some chocolate cupcakes, come and get some when you are ready." Laura and I went into our room and gathered our supplies. Laura had this small duffel bag in addition to her backpack. The duffle bag had cooking supplies, bowls, spoons, cooking pans, that sort of thing. We always bought our ingredients in the town we were in and used them up before we left again, that way there was less to carry.

I sat on the counter and slowly mixed the bowl of flower and eggs while Laura broke up a chocolate bar and put it into a bowl. She then put the bowl in the microwave to melt it. While it was melting she put sugar and other powders into the bowl along with some butter. I mixed it all together and then the chocolate was added and some vanilla.

Laura pulled out some cupcake liners and a cupcake tray. I put a cupcake liner in each hole and she filled them part way with batter. Into the oven they went and the timer was set. We still had some batter left so we would have to do a second batch; we only had one cupcake tray. Laura whisked together some butter and powdered sugar along with some secret ingredients to make our frosting. She dyed it pink, my favorite color, and set it into the fridge to stay cool.

I hopped down onto the floor and pulled a small silicon flower mold out of a pocket. I also grabbed a chocolate bar; I had an idea. I handed both to Laura and first pointed at the chocolate, then at the mold. Next I pointed at a cupcake liner.

"You are brilliant Sparks!" she said understanding my idea. She melted the chocolate bar and then poured the chocolate into the mold and put it in the fridge to harden, they would go on top of the cupcakes as decoration. A little while later the first batch of cupcakes came out. Laura put them on a cooling rack to release their heat. The next batch went in and we waited.

While we waited, we brainstormed ideas for a cheesecake recipe we were working on. We just couldn't get it quite right. When the second batch came out we started decorating the first batch. Laura swirled a small hill of pink frosting onto each cupcake and I topped it off with a chocolate flower.

"They are so pretty, aren't they Sparks?" Laura said.

"They are!" I said happily releasing a few electric sparks.

The smell of the cupcakes had wafted through out the Pokémon center and a few young trainers wander into the kitchen.

"You guys want a cupcake?" Laura asked. Of course they did and they were soon munching on the best cupcakes in the world, in my opinion anyway. The aroma just couldn't keep John away and he soon made his way into the kitchen for a treat. Neither he nor Laura said anything about the incident in the lobby. His leg was a sore subject for John and his twin sister Laura understood that better than anybody.

Point of View Change: John's growlithe

I stood ready on the icy battle field facing my first enemy, an abomasnow. The starting signal had not been given yet. I sized up my enemy. He was much bigger than me, but I had the type advantage as he was an ice and grass type and I was a fire type. John tapped his left foot on the ground and I heard a small metal clinking noise too small for a human to detect. I was so focused that I didn't hear the starting signal, but I did here John yell, "Growlithe, use Flamethrower!" I leapt into the air and launched a Flamethrower attack. At the same moment, Abomasnow launched an Ice Beam attack. My Flamethrower broke through and hit Abomasnow.

The Pokémon skidded back and was breathing hard.

"Fire Fang!" John called. I tried to get in close but Abomasnow hit me with Ice Shard and I slid back.

"Try again!" John yelled. I ran straight at the abomasnow avoiding an Energy Ball and clamped my fangs onto his arm. I unleashed my attack and the Pokémon cried out. I let go and jumped back.

"Use Flamethrower one more time! Finish him!" I leapt high up and launched my attack straight at Abomasnow's head. He fell to the ground KO'd and I had hardly broken a sweat. A Cryogonal came out next. Immediately it used Hail and the sharp shards of ice stabbed me from every direction slowly draining my health.

"Fire Fang!" John called out. I ran at the Pokémon my fangs ready to clamp down, but Cryogonal used Confuse Ray. The world became blurry and started spinning. I thought I heard John said use Bite, so I bit at the first thing I could see, but this turned out to me my tail. I felt my heath draining. Then something cold hit me and I slammed against the wall.

Suddenly the world came into focus and I was staring straight at a wall. I spun around.

"Flamethrower!" John called. I sent a stream of fire at Cryogonal which it was unable to dodge. It fell to the ground KO'd. I was breathing heavily now, but I wanted to keep going.

"Are you still going to use that growlithe?" Wulfric asked.

"Yes, if Growlithe can win this battle, then I know he is ready for my Fire Stone."

"Interesting, most people would have evolved their Growlithe before facing me so they would have more power, but you are waiting until after your Pokémon proves he is ready for it. Alright then, go Avalugg!"

The glacier Pokémon appeared on the field. I gathered my strength knowing what John was going to have me do. I didn't have much strength left and we need to one shot this enemy without taking any more damage.

"Use Flamethrower!"

"Use Gyro Ball!"

I leapt into the air and everything turned slow motion. I felt the fire building up inside of me ready to burst out. A silver ball of power was launched at me. I spun in midair and it just barly missed me. My fire launched from my jaws and slammed full force into Avalugg. The enemy was KO'd. I landed on all four feet panting for air.

"Growlithe wins!" the judged called out. Wufric handed John an Iceberg Badge. John knelt next to me and held out a Fire Stone. I touched it with my noise. I felt myself growing larger; power surged through my body. I emerged from the blue light of evolution an Arcanine. John hugged my neck and I glanced at the stands where Laura was clapping for me with her pachirisu on her head. John glowed with pride and I realized for the first time that I had beaten a whole gym all on my own.

Point of View Change: Coal

Three days had passed since our house arrest had begun and the floating island had disappeared.

I smashed the buttons on my game controller trying to keep my rhyhorn from crashing into the edge of the track. We were playing a video game and Zack was winning. Sprite and Wings were also playing; Riley lay upside down in a chair reading a magazine. Sprite was coming in second place and I was right on his tail. Wings was having a tough time and was currently in seventh; there were only ten racers.

I rounded a corner and knocked Sprite off course sending him crashing into a wall.

"Curse you Coal I had almost caught up to Zack!" Sprite yelled without looking away from the screen. Meanwhile I raced up on Zack's tail and almost passed him before Sprite snuck up behind me and knocked my rhyhorn into the wall.

"Grrrrr," I mumbled and tried to regain control. Wings was still struggling in the back of the pack. I managed to get back into third place just as I crossed the finish line; Zack had won, again. Wings had managed fifth place which was better than his previous scores. Sprite had gotten second place.

"My turn," Riley said taking the control from Zack and forcing him to move from his spot so she could sit down. Shadow lay under the coffee table fast asleep. We started a new race and sat tense waiting for the starting signal.

Point of View Change: Sprite

I lay in my bed on the self above the TV. A week had passed since our house arrest and it looked like we would get to leave soon. I chewed on my rubber ball that was colored like a pokeball. I loved this ball; it is bouncy and fun to chase. Wings was sitting on the couch watching TV. I flew down to him and dumped the ball on his lap. He lazily threw it across the room and I chased after it.

I returned it to him and he threw it again. After a while I got bored and went to seek out mischief. I floated through Riley's wall and into her room. She was laying on her stomach on the bed looking at something on a laptop. On top of her head sat her favorite sunglasses. I floated up to her and snatched the glasses in my mouth.

"Give those back!" Riley said grabbing for them. I giggled and fazed into her bed. She pulled off all the blankets but I was inside the mattress. I poked my head out and she made a grab for me and laughed when I went back inside the mattress. I kept poking my head out and then ducking back in when she tried to get me. Then, when I poked my head up again she wasn't there. I felt a tug on my tail and I was dragged out from under the bed.

"Gotch ya!" she grinned at me as she held me upside down by my tail. I grinned back at her with the glasses still in my mouth. She took the glasses and put them back on her head.

"Go steal Coal's styler top," she whispered to me before letting me go. I loved the idea so I fazed into his room where he had fallen asleep on the bed. His left hand hung off the bed with his styler still strapped on. I pried out the round circle piece of the styler that circled around a Pokémon to capture it.

Coal felt his arm move and opened one eye to see me holding the piece in my mouth.

"Hey, give that back!" he said falling out of bed in an attempt to grab at me. I giggled and floated out through his door. He chased after me and I fazed through the door to our apartment and out into the hallway. Without any shoes on and only one sock he chased me down the hall. We ran all over the building like this. Every once in a while he crashed into a wall rounding a corner and that was funny.

I made the mistake of running into the cafeteria where a helpful arcanine grabbed me in his jaws and as I couldn't faze through living things I was stuck.

"I got you now!" Coal said wrapping me in his arms and rubbing my head roughly with his fist.

"Hey, stop it," I complained. He took his styler piece back and let me go. I floated up toward the celing and pouted, my fun was over, again.

Point of View Change: Terran

The boys were coming home today and they were bringing along both Wings and Riley. Riley's land lord had given her apartment to a different tenant and left her stuff on the lawn. When Zack called me with a favor I ended up moving Coal's stuff into Zack's room and organizing Riley's stuff in his room. I also had to purchase a bed and other furniture for Wings and set it up in my room since the poor guy didn't have anywhere to live. His bed was a loft bed to save space in the now cramped room.

With 20 Pokémon and five people our three bedroom house was going to be extremely crowded, but as I owned the place it was cheap to live here. I finished a batch of cookies and set them on the dinner table sending the smell of cookies throughout the house.

The TV was on a music channel that was playing instrumental music. Most of my Pokémon were either asleep on the couches, or asleep out on the grass in the sun. I had just finished cleaning the kitchen when the door opened and all the eeveevolutions started yapping at once.

"We are home!" Zack called from the entry way. A pidgeot, an absol, and a Pokémon that I had never seen before swarmed into the living room. Coal, Zack, and the girl I assumed was Riley sat down on the couches. The boy with the wings knelt down and greeted all the eeveevolutions.

"Nice place, you must be Terran," Riley said standing up to shake my hand.

"That's my name. Make yourself at home, since you are going to be living here for the time being."

"Yeah, thanks a lot for that, if you hadn't saved my stuff it would have ended up stolen."

"Of course, anything for a friend of Zack and Coal."

"Hello, who are you?" the strange pink Pokémon said getting right up in my face. I took a step back before answering.

"I'm Terran, you must be the mew hybrid Sprite."

"That's me!" he yelled happily. He had a pokeball toy in his front paws. He zoomed around the room and then surprised me by going straight through the glass door without breaking it.

"Is that normal?" I asked Zack.

"Yep," Zack said. "Also Wings here can understand Pokémon so don't be surprised if he translates them every once in a while.

"Hi, I'm Wings," Wings said shaking my hand awkwardly as if he hadn't really done it before.

"Nice to meet you, my name is Terran."

"So, where is my room?" Riley asked.

"Up stairs first door on the left," I answered and she went up to check out her space.

"Wings, you are going to share my room, you want to see it?"

"Sure," he said standing up with a baby eevee in his arms. We went upstairs to our room and Wings looked around. He tried out his bed and looked through his empty drawers.

"It is really nice, thank you," he said.

"No problem."

Dinner that night was rambunctious and very fun. With so many Pokémon and people I had to make a lot of food and none was wasted. The guys talked about the mission they had been on. Even though they technically weren't supposed to tell me they never followed that rule with me. It sounded all very dangerous and exciting and strange that the island had just disappeared. Coal, Zack, and Riley were going to be on patrol of Lumiose for the next few weeks and they wanted to know if I could keep an eye on Wings.

"Sure, he can hang out with me."

"Great, glad that is settled," Zack said. The Pokémon Sprite floated up through the table and startled me, but the others barely reacted to his presence.

"What are you eating?" he asked.

"Uh, pasta," I said.

"Can I try?"

"Sure, I guess." I handed him a noodle which he slurped up.

"Yummy!" he cheered before zooming away again. A small smile crossed Coal's face.

"He is a cheery little creature," I commented.

"Yeah, he is a bundle of mischief though," Riley said.

"You can say that again," Wings said. "Yesterday he snuck up behind me and pulled a pillow case over my head." Everyone laughed at that. Our little misfit family was really growing.


	8. Chapter 8

_**Sorry it's been a while, writers block. I should be back for a while now though.**_

Chapter 8

Point of View: Sprite

I sat just in front of Coal who was driving his ATV on the streets of Lumiose. He had complained to his boss about having to do patrol in the city so his boss said, "Fine, go patrol Route 14," which is in between Lumiose and Laverre City. Shadow was sitting on the ATV behind Coal. We turned off the streets and drove through a tunnel that lead to Route 14.

Once we were out of the tunnel, we found ourselves in a park, but it was raining.

"This isn't fun," I complained.

"It's better than patrolling Lumiose," Coal said pulling up the hood of his rubber jacket. Now I knew why Coal had bought me a small rubber jacket with a hood, for the rain! I had picked a hot pink jacket because it is my favorite color! Shadow and Coal's jackets are red. I pulled up my hood to stay dry.

I stood up a little and put my front paws on the handle bars to see better. There was a swing and a slid and some other stuff, but it didn't seem like it would be much fun to play on them in the rain. Coal slowly pressed the gas and we parked the ATV in a corner. Coal hopped off and turned off the engine. He put the key in his pocket.

"We have to walk from here, this path is mostly swamps and I don't want to get my ATV stuck."

"Why do we have to work here?" I asked Shadow. "It is so not fun."

"It's punishment for Coal complaining about having to work in the city," Shadow explained. "Basically, when Coal complained his boss said, 'fine, you don't want to work where I tell you, I will give you the worst place to work so you don't want to complain again.' The problem is, Coal would much rather work here in this miserable mess than work in the city."

"I didn't understand most of that," I said as I sat down on Coal's head.

We left the park behind us and walked toward a swamp that blocked our path. Coal and Shadow trudged into the murky water and their feet disappeared.

"This isn't fun," I complained.

"I told you to go with Zack," Coal said.

"I know, but I wanted to go with you." Coal's boots made splashing noises when he pulled them out of the mud. We trudged along for a while in the rain. The only Pokémon we ran into where skorupi, shelmet, and stunfisk. Pretty soon Coal had befriended one of each of these and they were following us around.

After a while of wandering around the rain stopped and more Pokémon came out. We sat down in some dry grass and Coal pulled out some food for lunch. I got some plain old Pokémon chow that wasn't as nearly good as it had been the first time I tried it because now I was used to Terran's food. Coal gave the wild Pokémon some food too and they seemed quite pleased about it.

I munched on my food and looked around. This place felt kind of creepy, like it wasn't at ease. The wild Pokémon seemed happy enough though. They crunched up their food like it was the best thing in the world. I hesitantly place another nub in my mouth and chewed it up. I looked around in the trees and thought I saw the purple glow of a haunter.

There was suddenly a distressed cry of a Pokémon. Coal and Shadow stood up in a flash and ran toward the sound, leaving behind our food. The wild Pokémon and I chased after them. We found a bellsprout being tormented but a horde of ekans.

"Shadow, Thunderbolt!" The ekans ran away and Coal captured the bellsprout to calm her down. In a moment Coal held the baby Pokémon in his arms.

"Oh no, you're hurt," he said gently touching the side of the Pokémon's face. "Don't worry, I'll get you to a Pokémon Center." We ran through the swamps toward Laverre City which was closer than Lumiose. The water splashed around Coal's feet and soon he was wet to the waist. At the edge of Route 14 Coal told the wild Pokémon they were free to leave and they wandered back into the trees.

We raced through town. It seemed a very peaceful place, but also strangely magical. The Pokémon Center was in sight. Shadow hit the door with Shadow Ball to burst them open and Coal ran inside. Nurse Joy took action immediately and placed the injured Pokémon on a stretcher where a Chansey took it in back. We collapsed on the couches where a few other trainers were chatting.

"Are you a Pokémon ranger?" a guy about 16 asked.

"Yep," Coal panted.

"Then why do you have two Pokémon? And what is that thing?" I felt insulted.

"Mine name is Sprite!" I said indignantly.

"It talks," the girl next to rude guy said.

"Yes, I talk." I crossed my front legs.

"He is a hybrid who was genetically engineered by immoral scientists," Coal explained.

"Oh," rude guy said, then he and the girl got up and sat down on a different set of couches. Coal didn't seem angry about this but I was fuming. Who do those people think they are?

"Calm down Sprite," Shadow said. "Getting angry for people like that isn't worth the trouble." I calmed down a bit and sat down on the couch. I got bored and started chasing my tail in midair.

I saw a bored looking spirtzee resting on the arm of a chair. I floated down to her and smiled. She looked up at me bored. I touched her and yelled, "You're it!" Her eyes lit up and she chased after me.

I flew behind the counter and she followed tagging me. Then I chased her under a coffee table and tagged her back. She caught me again behind a potted plant.

"Linda!" an angry female voice called out. The spirtzee flinched at her name and floated down to her trainer.

"How many times do I have to tell you not to run off?!" Then the trainer did something I wasn't expecting, she hit her Pokémon. She raised her hand to hit Linda again, but when her hand came down, it was on Coal's face; I don't know how he moved so fast.

"Who do you think you are?" she said angrily.

"A Pokémon ranger, and the person who is protecting this spirtzee."

"A Pokémon ranger?" the woman said stunned.

"You are going to release this spirtzee or I am going to have to arrest you," Coal said, his eyes fierce.

"Fine," the woman's shoulders fell. "You are free Linda." A light emitted from the pokeball and surrounded the spirtzee. The happy expression on the Pokémon lit up the room. She flew down and nuzzled Coal before flying happily out the door. At that moment Nurse Joy call Coal up and handed him the Bellsprout.

"This Pokémon is feeling much better," she said. "But she needs her parents."

"Don't worry, I'll find them," Coal promised. We headed back outside with the Bellsprout and soon found ourselves on Route 14. We made our way back to where we first found the Bellsprout and tried to find its parents. Shadow nearly had to swim at some points the water was so deep.

I used my psychic powers to locate any weepinbell in the area.

"There," I pointed into the trees. "There are two weepinbell that way."

"It could be this bellsprout's parents," Coal said as he started walking the way I had pointed. When the weepinbell came into sight the bellsprout leapt out of Coal's arms and ran to the Pokémon. There was a happy reunion and the weepinbell came up to Coal and said thank you.

"They say thank you," I told Coal. Coal crouched down in front of the Pokémon.

"There is no need to thank me. I am just doing what any decent ranger would do." With that the happy family wander off into the trees. I wondered for a moment what Zack was doing and if he was helping Pokémon like we were.

Point of View Change: Leon

I used Wild Charge on the enemy's clawitzer. It hurt me a little but did the trick of one hit KO'ing the enemy Pokémon. The thief cursed as that was his only Pokémon. He tried to run away but Zack instructed me to use Quick Attack. I ran into the thief knocking him over. Zack knelt on top of the guy and handcuffed him. Even though rangers were technically supposed to deal with crimes against Pokémon or saving injured or hurt Pokémon and the police were supposed to deal with crimes against humans there tended to be cross over between the two groups it just depends on whoever is around when there is trouble.

Zack stood up, roughly dragging the thief to his feet. He flipped open his Holo Caster and pushed a button that would send him straight through to the police base in Lumiose.

"This is Zack Florence, Pokémon Ranger, calling in," he said into his phone. An image of Officer Jenny appeared floating in midair.

"What is the problem Mr. Florence?"

"I have a thief in custody on Vernal Avenue near South Boulevard."

"I will send a cruiser your way to pick him up."

"Thanks." A few minutes later a police car showed up and the officer shoved the thief inside. The officer handed Zack a clip board with some paper work that he had to fill out and sign. After he scribbled on the paper for a minute he handed the clip board back to the officer and the car drove away.

"Well that was a little excitement," Zack said looking at me. I snorted in response. Zack laughed.

"Yeah, that battle was a little lame. Well, what do you say we continue with our patrol?" I nodded. We had been assigned the south side of Lumiose to patrol. We ran into that thief running out of a café with a bag of money in his hand. Now that he was caught, Zack walked back to South Boulevard and returned the money to the Café. They thanked him endlessly and tried to shove free food and drinks at him but he politely refused.

Our patrol ended at 8:00 pm without any more incidents. We made our way home where dinner was waiting.

Point of View Change: Riley

I walked through the door were I was attacked by a horde of Pokémon.

"Calm down you guys I wasn't gone that long," I laughed pushing through the little guys.

"Welcome back Riley," Coal said from his place on the couch. His black hair was wet indicating he had taken a shower. He was dressed in his normal all black clothes. I really wanted to ask why he, Zack, and Terran all had scars on their chest and arms but I just hadn't gathered the guts I needed to do so again.

I collapsed next to Coal on the couch and just to make him uncomfortable a rested my head on his shoulder. To my surprise he didn't react at all. His shoulder was rather comfortable and realized I was really tired, so I just rested there for a bit and watched the show Coal was involved it. It was a documentary about the legendary Pokémon Xernes. Coal seemed to watch a lot of documentaries and he always left when I put on a gory horror movie. Maybe I should stop watching them if they made him uncomfortable.

Sprite was asleep on Coal's lap and Shadow was sleeping in a Pokémon bed against the wall. Zack had passed out in an arm chair with Tulip on his lap and he was drooling. I heard a crash in the kitchen and Zack jumped in his sleep but didn't wake up. Lex walked up to Coal looking for affection and he gently petted her behind the ear. Dark and Psychic type Pokémon seemed to have a fascination with Coal. I could understand the Dark type Pokémon liking him, he was rather dark and mysterious like them, but I didn't understand why the Psychic types, like Sprite and Rose the espeon, liked him so much.

Terran came up behind me and placed a plate of food on my lap. I sat up straight and thanked him. I devoured my food without really paying attention to what it was. The documentary ended and Coal changed the channel to the news. Nothing exciting was going on though. I placed my empty plate on the coffee table and lay my head back on Coal's shoulder. Normally he gave off a very uncomfortable or creepy vibe, but right now his energy was very calming and at ease; I could only guess this is because he is at home.

I closed my eyes and could have fallen asleep if I wanted to, but I was interrupted but Sprite.

"You smell," Sprite said looking up at me from Coal's lap.

"I do?" I asked.

"She smells fine to me," Coal said.

"She smells like a lot of berries, it is really strong," Sprite said holding his nose.

"Oh, that is because a rampaging Pokémon knocked a whole shelf of perfume over on me," I explained.

"Oh," Sprite said before curling back up still with his paws over his nose and fell back asleep. After a while Coal gently moved the sleeping Sprite from his lap to mine.

"What?" I asked looking up at him.

"I'll be right back; I got to…" I nodded toward the bathroom under the stairs.

"Okay," I said. Wings tripped down the stairs then looking really sleepy; he had lost his shirt somewhere revealing a small handful of scars on his chest from the scientists.

"Where did Kip go?" he yawned, Kip being the name of the eevee Terran had given Wings. I could only tell those three eevees apart by their collars, Jill's is pink, Dan's is Green, and Kip's is blue.

"Kip is outside," Terran said coming into the living room.

"Okay, thanks" Wings yawned and went to find his Pokémon. Coal came back and sat down next to me but made no move to take back Sprite who was still sleeping on my lap, and I was glad for that because I was enjoying petting him. Terran sat down on the couch next to me and grabbed the remote from the coffee table. He turned the channel to a cooking show.

The three of us watched this for a while. Mid way through the show Zack got up and trudged up the stairs with his sylveon.

The show ended and Terran turned off the TV, it was 10:00, time for bed. I picked up Sprite and made a move to give him to Coal because I knew Sprite slept with him most nights, however Coal held up his hands when I tried to give him Sprite and so I carried him up to my room.

I set Sprite on the bed and saw that Storm was sleeping in her Pokémon bed in the corner. I changed into my pajamas and climbed into bed and snuggled up with Sprite. He was very soft and warm and I was soon asleep.

I woke up before my alarm clock, so I just lay there. I thought about how nice it was living in this house with the boys and all the Pokémon. It was much better than living alone. I rolled over to see Sprite asleep on my pillow. Storm had left the room already.

I envied Coal and his relationship with Shadow. They would fall asleep on the couch together, or rough house together. They seemed so at ease with each other, almost like they were brothers. During the battle with Wings on the floating island, Coal hardly needed to say anything but Shadow did exactly what he wanted, they were so in sync.

I don't really have a relationship like that with Storm. I mean, we are friends, but other than working together she does her own thing. She wanted to be a ranger's Pokémon so badly when I met her that I think she just joined up with the first ranger she met. We aren't really suited to be partners.

My alarm clock started beeping and I slammed the off button. Sprite woke up and stretched.

"Good morning Riley," he yawned.

"Good morning Sprite." I kicked my blanket off and sat up. My feet hit the cold floor and I pushed off the bed and stood up. I snatched my towel and made my way to the bathroom. No one was using it so I took a shower. I had to kick Splash the vaporeon out of the tub first though.

As I walked back out into the hall with a towel around my head I heard my Holo Caster ringing. I scrambled back to my room and snatched it from my bedside table.

"Riley Skull here," I said really fast as soon as I answered it.

"Hello Miss Skull, we have a mission for you in Couriway Town. There seems to be a small squad of Team Flare sprouting back up there and our ranks are spread very thin right now."

"I understand, I can leave for Couriway in an hour."

"Good, and can you contact Mr. Matter?"

"Yeah, he lives down the hall form me, why?"

"He is being sent to Couriway Town as well but he isn't answering his Holo Caster."

"His probably still asleep. That kid sleeps like a rock. Don't worry, I won't leave without him."

"Thanks. Good bye." And with that my Holo Caster went dark. I dried my hair and got dressed in my ranger uniform. I checked my back pack to make sure it had all its supplies then went to wake up Coal.

I found Coal on his bed snuggled up with Shadow. Shadow looked up when I opened the door but Coal didn't move. Zack was nowhere to be seen, he always wakes up supper early.

"Wake up Coal, we have a mission," I said shaking him.

"Go away Zack," he mumbled half asleep.

"It's not Zack it's Riley now get up."

"Riley!" he said sitting up really fast. His blanket fell off to reveal his bare chest. When he sat up however he moved to the edge of the bed and after a moment he fell to the floor.

"Ouch," he groaned and I laughed.

"Here," I offered my hand he and took it. I pulled him to his feet where he dusted himself off.

"Thanks," he said standing there awkwardly.

"No problem."

"What about a mission?" he said breaking the awkward silence that had grown between us.

"Oh, right. We are being sent to Couriway Town to deal with some stray Flares."

"Cool, I'll just get dressed and…" he trailed off as he knelt down and pulled his uniform out from under his bed. I left him alone and went to get some breakfast.

"He sure does have a lot of scars," I said to myself. "This mission is the perfect chance to ask him about them."

I found Strom out back sitting in the middle of the yard and chasing off the baby eevee who were trying to play with her. I sighed. Storm is always so uptight and proper, very unlike me.

Terran and Zack where siting on the couch eating cereal and watching the news. After making my way into the kitchen I prepared some Pokémon food for Storm and some cereal for myself.

I brought the Pokémon food to Storm. She hopped over to the patio to eat it. I sat down in between the boys and munched on my cereal.

"So me and Coal are being sent to Couriway Town to deal with some stray Flares," I said between bites.

"Cool, have fun," Zack said.

"Sounds neat, and I will have less food to make while you two are gone," Terran commented.

"I want to go with Coal!" Sprite said determined.

"You can't, he has a partner Pokémon already," I said gently.

"I am going whether he says I can or not, you can't stop me." Zack laughed.

"I guess you have no choice but to let him," Zack said. I sighed.

"Fine, but you have to do every Coal and I say," I made it perfectly clear.

"Of course!" Sprite said saluting.

Point of View Change: Coal

I stumbled sleepily down the stairs with my backpack where I was attack by Sprite cheering that Riley said he could come with us. I just shrugged and found my way to the kitchen. I placed a bowl of Pokémon food on the floor for Shadow and sat on the counter to eat my cereal. Riley came in with an empty bowl and nodded at me. I nodded back.

After I finish, I rinsed my bowl and Shadow's and placed them in the sink. Next I found the hallway and tugged my boots on and laced them up. My energy was acting up today and everything was a little blurry. I was hoping it would correct itself soon.

"Coal? What's wrong with you?" Sprite asked.

"Oh, nothing. I'm fine," I lied. Dark and Psychic type Pokémon have a fascination with me. The Dark types like me because they can sense the dark energy that lies inside my body. Psychic types like me because I am very good at blocking my mind to them and they want to know why. I had felt Sprite try to probe into my mind before but I had kept him out every time. He was extremely strong psychically but not strong enough for me.

I found Riley out front strapping Storms harness on. I pulled out Shadow's harness and put it on him. Sprite appeared through the door with his ball in his mouth. Without opening my backpack he placed the ball right inside.

Shadow leapt onto my AVT and I strapped him in. Then I climbed on and Sprite sat right in front of me. Riley climbed onto Storm and strapped herself in. With that, we were ready to go. I started up my ride and backed out of the driveway. Riley followed me from above. And thus we made our way out of Lumiose and toward Couriway.


End file.
